After Dark
by Joanna Euphrasie
Summary: Birthed from one of the prompts in saiunkoku fic: the cast in a modern urban fantasy setting. This story is made within the world of Haruki Murakami's After Dark.
1. 11:47 PM

**after dark **

**a Saiunkoku Monogatari fanfic, based on the world of **_**After Dark**_** by Haruki Murakami**

This fic is birthed from one of the prompts in saiunkoku_fic Livejournal community: the cast in a modern urban fantasy setting.

_After Dark _(アフターダーク) is a short, one-shot read; it is a story that has a 'real-time' timeline, beginning minutes before 12AM ending towards the wee hours of the morning. The story is written in an engaging way, featuring characters you can relate to. Despite the realism, the story goes on a paranormal/fantasy path, which is really haunting. Aside from this, the story puts the spotlight on real issues like isolation, social expectations and the like.

**Disclaimer, legal stuff:**  
None of the characters, the setting in which these characters move in and the issues they face are mine. Purely done for fun.

**Warnings:**  
Pretty much K at first going to M, due to themes and violence.

**Definitions:**  
_Hikikomori_ - A Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive individuals who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement because of various personal and social factors in their lives (Wikipedia). This word is not used in the story, but later on you'll see hints of it  
_Toudai_ - Tokyo University. Toudai is an abbreviation of Tokyo Daigaku.  
_Love ho_ - Love Hotel. Short-stay hotels operated primarily for the purpose of allowing couples privacy to have sexual intercourse.  
_Salaryman_ - someone whose income is salary based; particularly those working for corporations. Typical Japanese white-collar worker.

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11:47 PM.

We are inside a 7-Eleven.

It was like any other convenience store – fully lit, background music playing at a low volume, the soft breeze of the AC barely audible above, the staff greeting every customer coming in and out by the book – "Good evening Ma'am (or) Sir, welcome to 7 Eleven" when they enter, and "Thank you Ma'am (or) Sir, come again!" when they leave.

A completely forgettable experience.

But as we survey the surroundings, we notice a young man sitting by the front window. Why does he catch our attention, and not the others who are passing by? We're not sure at the moment, but at the moment our gaze passed him, we simply had to stop.

Sometimes, we don't need clear-cut reasons for doing things. But he did attract our attention very naturally.

He is seated alone in a table for four, his backpack keeping him company on the seat beside him. Hooded purple jacket, dark blue baseball cap, faded black skinny jeans and yellow sneakers. His nose is stuck in an old hardbound book, his face intense as he devours every word in the page. He is probably a college freshman, definitely not more than a sophomore. Hair is blond, short and layered, with a thin fringe on one side. His eyes seem to reflect the color of the sun, even if its less than four minutes till midnight. We notice a gold ring on his right hand – a not-so ordinary ring not so fit for a seemingly ordinary person.

It is evident that he is reading with much concentration; a wrinkle surfaces in between his brows every so often. He takes his time with every page, like he has all the time in the world. His sunlit eyes move very slowly. The routine is broken momentarily when he reaches for a coffee cup to his left. He drinks from it gingerly, his eyes never departing the yellowing pages.

He looks at his left wrist, where a golden watch is strapped around it, then turns his head back to his reading. Is he waiting for someone? It doesn't seem like it, for he never glances towards the door when its bells clang to announce the arrival or departure of a customer. We think that he's just there to pass the time, but with his demeanor, he may also be wanting for time to move faster.

"The time is now 12 midnight. This time check is brought to you by …", says the radio DJ in the background. As if to acknowledge the fact, he takes a break from reading and looks outside. The streets are still bustling with activity even at this late hour. Couples holding each other's hands, salary men with their duffel bags trying to catch a cab, people aimlessly or with aim headed towards a destination that they may or may not be aware of. He looks at the Styrofoam cup and sees that it is empty. With a sigh, he stands up and asks for a refill. It will be his fourth cup since he came in.

The bells attached to the door ring again, and a tall, slender robust man walks in. Long, blue-black hair gathered neatly in a ponytail behind his back, dark blue leather jacket with a black linen shirt underneath, with blue jeans tucked in leather boots. Despite his rugged appearance he carries a very respectable air around him. He carries a motorcycle helmet on his left arm. Aside from a medium-sized pack, a long, black tube is slinging across his back. A sword is inside.

He passes by one of the gondolas and takes a few snacks in his hand. Then, he saunters to the fridge and gets a bottle or to. Finally, he goes to the cashier, beside the boy wearing the purple jacket, and asks for a pack of condoms. As the cashier punches everything else he picked up in the register, he looks around until his eyes landed on the boy. He stops and studies him, as if he is trying to remember something important. His gaze is intense; even when the cashier declares his total due, it doesn't seem to matter. The young man notices his presence finally, and cocks his head to look at the man. Their eyes meet – light brown on blue. Then the older man grins broadly.

"Aren't you Shi Seien's little brother?"

The boy frowns visibly, but doesn't answer him.

"I'm sure as heck that you are!" he exclaims. "Your name is … I remember it, hold on … it's …"

A short, yet awkward silence passes. The boy makes a face and answers him curtly: "Ryuuki."

"That's it! I was about to say it!" The older man exclaimed. "I'm guessing that you don't remember me at all, huh?"

Ryuuki reaches for his filled coffee cup and tilts his head slightly, as if he's trying to decide to answer yes or no, or if an answer really mattered at this point. But the other man couldn't seem to wait for him to speak. "I went to your house before and I was introduced to your brother, and I saw you with him."

"Uh huh," He tries to put on a look of understanding, but his effort is half-hearted.

"Do you have a table? Can I sit with you for a while? I won't be long – I'm meeting someone in a few."

Ryuuki sighs. "All right."

The older man grins again and starts toward the four-seater table. He places the black tube on the other chair and sits beside it. He sits down, then places the plastic bag full of knick-knacks that he just bought on the table and picked one out randomly.

"Do you want one?"

He sits down slowly. Realizing that he may not be able to read for a while, he puts the old book aside. "I've already eaten." Ryuuki replies.

He shrugs, then opens the foil, revealing a small cupcake. He takes a big bite out of it.

"So, like I said, we met when my older brother sent me to your house. Your family is one of, if not _the_ biggest _zaibatsu_ around, so he must have wanted to secure his ties with your family. He wanted me to befriend Shi Seien, but we never really took off."

"Uh huh."

"When I came to your house – and your house was really big, I can tell you that – I saw Seien and you. You were quite little at that time, and I remember you clearly because you'd never leave your brother's side, and you hardly said a word to anyone except him." He takes another bite from the cupcake.

"I think … I remember you now." Ryuuki puts his finger on the rim of his coffee cup, his eyes fixed on the billowing steam.

"Really?"

He nods as he traces the rim of the cup gingerly. "You were the one who really pissed my brother off, that you left the house crying." Ryuuki glances at the older man and sees his face change to a look of slight embarrassment. "Aniue was very unapologetic when he spoke to Chichiue about it. And, when he told me the story eventually, I completely understood."

"Wha … what did he tell you?"

"You seemed to have spoken to him in a way that's very unbecoming. He said that you mistook him for a girl." Ryuuki frowns and shakes his head slightly as he relived the memory, then takes his cup and makes a short drink.

He scratches his head and forces half a smile. "Yes, that was me, all right. My brother taught twice with sending me to your house from then on." He takes the last bite from his cupcake and crushes the foil. "But, your brother was a real beauty, even for a young man, don't you think?"

Ryuuki looks up. "Why do you say that in the past tense?"

"What … I mean … well … I haven't seen him since that day … and that was what, more than ten years back? It was something that happened in the past. I didn't mean that he is ugly now or something."

"Well …" Ryuuki hesitates. "He had a pretty face, I guess."

"See? Even you think so."

"It's not normal for a guy to talk about these things." He replies sheepishly. "It gives the wrong impression."

"Well, I know real beauty when I see it," the older man says proudly. "and I make sure that beauty is acknowledged." He fumbles in his plastic bag for another snack and opens it.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's a rich kid like you doing in a place like this? If I had as much money as you I'll be in my own flat with a state-of-the-art entertainment system, working with my sword in the morning, then bedding a woman or two at night." He takes the first bite into a cake-like bread.

"I'm reading," Ryuuki answers simply, tapping his fingers on the book next to him.

The older man frowns. "Will you tell me what that is all about?"

"I probably won't."

"Is it for school?"

"Probably not."

"It certainly looks like the kind of book that whiz kids in college bring with them." He quips.

Ryuuki says nothing, but watches the older man finish his cake.

"Hmm … he should be arriving by now …" The older man looks at his watch. 12:20.

"I … really don't remember your name."

"Huh?" He raises his head to Ryuuki. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself." He crumples the foil of the second knick-knack he just ate. "Ran Shuuei. I'm in the city SWAT team. Swordmaster. Licensed to use deadly force."

Ryuuki nods. "Womanizer," he adds.

Shuuei laughs. "Wherever did you get that?"

"My _sempai_ talk about you. You're quite notorious for leading women on."

"You mean to say you study in ..."

"_Toudai._"

"You're kidding! I thought you are home-schooled."

"Aniue was. I'm more inclined to … the normal kind of life, I guess." He takes his cup. "The upperclassmen in my individual PhysEd class say you're an animal."

"And I guess in that class you're studying …"

"Kendo. Your sword skills seem to be legendary to them. But your demeanor with women seems to be of more interest."

"I seemed to have built quite a reputation," he makes a face as he scratches his head with a finger. The gesture doesn't seem to mess up his hair in any way; it remains firm in its place.

Ryuuki takes another gulp of coffee. Shuuei drums his fingers on the table, his head bobbing in rhythm to the bass of Janne de Arc's _Dolls_ playing in the background.

"You talk about my family as if yours isn't so well off."

Shuuei smirks. "Have you checked the stocks lately? We're on the downside right now. Recession is really bringing out the worst in everyone. I try to stay away from all the ruckus back home as much as possible."

"The Ran _zaibatsu_ still is one of the biggest."

"Yeah, but your family's investments are more diversified, and damned well strategically diversified than ours. The loss of one business can be compensated by another. You must have helluva bunch of think tanks running your joint."

"I think your family's business will be able to weather it out nonetheless."

"_They_ should." Shuuei says imperatively.

"Aren't you involved in any of that?"

"I choose not to. I'm working for the government, so if I meddle with my family's business affairs the others might see my position as a way for my family to get ahead. I personally don't see how that can get my family into trouble, but it's better to be sure."

Ryuuki takes another swig from his coffee cup, while Shuuei takes the two foil wrappers, stands up and throws them in a nearby bin.

"I've always wondered why you were so temperamental on that day, when I came to your house." His eyes look at the digital clock at the back of the counter. 12:30. He sits down again, placing his arm on the table and leans forward. To us, it's like the way a police officer poses when he makes an interrogation. "You refused to speak to me, and you seem very teary eyed when you stared at Seien, then you started tugging his hand."

"I … don't really remember that day."

"But Seien … he was very calm when handling you. It's as if he exactly knew what to do."

Ryuuki doesn't say anything.

"How is he, I forgot to ask?" Shuuei asks. "Your brother, I mean."

"He's sleeping." Ryuuki replies with haste, that even we are taken by surprise at the sudden change in the manner by which he answers.

"Oh …" Shuuei nods in understanding. "That's obvious enough. It's well past midnight already. I'm guessing he must be very busy, being the heir to the _zaibatsu_ and all. It must be tough."

"No," Ryuuki answers. "He just sleeps these days."

A wrinkle briefly appears in between his brows this time. "You mean, all he does now, is sleep?"

"Uh huh."

"And, who does the work?"

Ryuuki ponders on this question for a while. "There are others who relieve him of his duties, I'd like to think. You said so yourself," he pauses, "we have 'helluva lot of think tanks' running our investments."

"What a life."

"You can say that again."

The song ends, and there comes a sudden "_Oh when I woke up tonight I said I … I'm gonna make somebody love me, I'm gonna make somebody love me …_" , that everyone inside the store looks up to the speakers overhead.

"And now I know, now I know, now I know, I know that it's you … you're lucky lucky you're so lucky!" Shuuei sang along, in a tone that's flat on some parts. "I love this song!" He then takes something out of his plastic bag – a Kirin Light. He sifts through his pocket and takes out a Swiss knife, then pulls out a bottle opener from it. The cap snaps, and he takes a swig immediately.

Ryuuki stares at the entire happening. "You sure come prepared," he says.

"I have to have some kind of amusement, you know, especially at night." Shuuei smacks his lips and looks at the bottle, as if to relish the taste of the alcohol. "And if you're getting tired of waiting. Man, I think that guy got lost again."

"Lost?"

"Oh, it's no cause for trouble. He always gets lost." Shuuei pulls out a mobile phone from his jeans pocket and dials a number. He waits for a while. "Hey, it's me. I'm here, and let me guess … all right, all right already. Where did you say you were again? Yeah … oh, you're _there?_ Just go straight ahead and you'll see the sign. It's bright enough to sting the eyes at this time of night. It's impossible to miss, even for someone as impossible as you when it comes to directions ... yes, yes … I know. Just come here already. I've been here since midnight! My bum hurts with these plastic chairs!" He ends the call and chuckles.

"Aren't you going to make sure that he gets here?" Ryuuki asks. "You said yourself he's no good with directions."

"Look, kid. They say the fun in going someplace is getting there." Shuuei answers. "And besides, how hard is it to go straight when he's just two blocks away?"

Ryuuki nods a bit, and then takes his coffee again. He grimaces, for it has already gone warm.

The door's bell rings, and Ryuuki and Shuuei turn to its direction. We see that convenience store's newest customer is a salary man, his coat hanging on one arm, his duffel bag in another. Blue-green tie over a white crisp polo shirt. Black slacks. Leather loafers complete his look. The only thing amiss with his completely corporate appearance is his light green hair gathered in a ponytail. The look on his face is clearly of exasperation. He looks around, and when he sees the two, he becomes even more menacing.

"Ran Shuuei!" He points an accusing finger and charges towards Shuuei's direction. "I've been walking without rest for nearly an hour now! If you've told me _exactly_ where this accursed place is then I wouldn't have to go around in circles!"

"Easy, Kouyuu," Shuuei raises his hands and smiles broadly. Ryuuki tilts his head, seeing all this for the first time.

"You were planning this all along, were you?" He raises his voice even more, that now the other convenience store shoppers have their eyes on the three of them. "Here I am, tired as hell from another day at work and you ---"

"Excuse me, sir, is there a problem?" A security guard hovers over the situation, with a quizzical look on his face.

"Oh, it's all right officer, everything's under control." Shuuei answers, the smile on his face getting more unnatural by the second. Ryuuki bows his head, pulls his baseball cap down and drinks the rest of his coffee, hiding the smirk on his face as the nearly cold, bitter liquid comes down his throat.

"Oi, Kouyuu, if you ever plan on settling down now is the time!" Shuuei rasps in between clenched teeth.

"Damn straight! I'll have to shout till your ears ring first!"

"Have some respect! We're in someone else's table." Shuuei rocks his head to Ryuuki's direction. The other man turns rapidly, his face containing great rage.

Ryuuki, on the other hand, is now tasked to break the short, yet uncomfortable silence in between. He raises his head slightly, but in the end chooses not to say a word.

The other man called Kouyuu turns to Shuuei. "He's part of your plan too, isn't he? How thick of you to get someone else involved in this!"

"No," Shuuei replies. "He agreed to let me sit here while I wait for you, so I actually owe him."

"Hey kid! Is what he's saying true?" Kouyuu turns to Ryuuki again, demanding an answer. "And if he talked you into something stupid you'd better 'fess up right now."

Ryuuki looks up to the both of them. Seeing that angry fists are already gripping Shuuei's jacket collar tightly, he knows he has to intervene. "He asked if he can sit with me for a while, and I did say yes." He answers calmly.

"You'd better watch the way you talk to him," Shuuei whispers. "He happens to be the youngest son of the current Shi _zaibatsu_ patriarch."

"What?" Kouyuu drops the grip he has on Shuuei's clothes and faces Ryuuki. "You're a Shi? Then what the hell are you doing in here?"

Shuuei chuckles. "I asked him the same question."

"I'm reading."

"You have a nice house. I've been there before. Why spend time on this godforsaken place?"

"I find it better here." Ryuuki taps the empty Styrofoam cup on the table nonchalantly.

"You ridiculously rich people are absolutely weird."

"He's more normal than Shi Seien, though." Shuuei says offhandedly, and then turns to Ryuuki. "No offense to your brother." He looks at Kouyuu again. "This one actually studies in _Toudai._"

"Oh, don't remind me about that slave driver!" Kouyuu waves his hand. "How is Shi Seien, by the way?"

"He's sleeping." Ryuuki says quickly, in the manner that he answered Shuuei when he posed the same question.

Kouyuu stares down at him. "Of course he is, it's after midnight." The way he stares at Ryuuki is like a kid in the sixth grade bullying a fourth grader.

"Now, now, Kouyuu, you shouldn't be talking to someone who agreed to put up with me while I waited for you." Shuuei stands up and picks up his bag and effects. "He was reading an old book before I came him, and I think it's about time that he gets back to that now." He winks at Ryuuki.

"I'm really sorry for Kouyuu. He's like that when he's in dire need of a woman's company."

"You son of a---!"

Shuuei cups Kouyuu's mouth. "Thanks for letting me stay, Ryuuki."

Ryuuki nods. "You're welcome." He watches as the two men walk away, Shuuei holding Kouyuu's arm tightly, as if to contain his rage. The doors of the store open, and an employee shouts "Thank you Sir, come again!". He sees them get on Shuuei's motorcycle, and they ride off, disappearing into the midnight streets.

"The time is now 1:00 AM. This time check is brought to you by …"

Ryuuki looks at the Styrofoam cup that used to contain four servings of convenience store coffee and decides he has had enough. He gathers his backpack and slings it on his shoulders, puts the hood on top of his baseball cap and carries his old book. It is time to move on to another place – a place where he can never think of falling asleep.


	2. 12:00 AM

**12:00 AM.**

Away from the bright lights in downtown Tokyo, we come upon a dark room. Barely any light penetrates through. The blinds are half-shut. Soon enough our view adjusts to this new scene, and we realize that there is a bed before us. There laying absolutely motionless is Shi Seien.

We know who this person is at first sight because he is already introduced to us. Thirty minutes later, Ran Shuuei will say that he had a beautiful face. We realize that his use of the past tense is inappropriate. He _has_ a beautiful face. Almost as if every contour and angle was carved by a master artist to perfection. Pewter hair nestles evenly on his face. White pajamas. Hands evenly straight on both sides.

We decide to observe him more. Nothing seems to strike us as unusual. We hear the midnight breeze blowing beyond the windows. The trees rustling to its direction. Even the faint hum of cars driving through the village streets. But none of these sounds figure in to this room, or to Shi Seien.

He is silent. Silent as the grave.

We close in on him. Is he breathing? Our instincts say no, but this is easily disproven as we see a slight, yet sure rise of his chest, which descends immediately. Is he really alive? His eyelids are shut solid, his lips are pursed tight. No part of his face twitches. He is perfectly still, but it is too perfect. Apart from the minimum breathing, there is no evidence that consciousness still remains in him.

We zoom out a bit to gain an overview of the room. It is moderately spacious. A flat plasma TV is directly in front of the bed. A tall, wide shelf filled with books is beside it. To its right is a door, probably leading to the bathroom. Another door is on its right angle, likely the way out. Towards right there are three wooden cushioned chairs flanked around a mahogany table. We look harder and see there is a plate on its top – a portion of rice, salmon, vegetables. A glass of water by its side. The meal is presented well, so we conclude that it has been undisturbed. The glass is almost full.

A tall night lamp is in the corner. We turn right and come to the bedside counter. A notebook computer, a Mont Blanc pen, and a picture frame. We stare at it and see a _living_ Shi Seien with his younger brother Ryuuki. He is smiling, a small smile, but one nonetheless. Ryuuki in contrast is beaming brightly, holding a frame with both hands containing paper with a decorative ribbon. He also wore a few medals. It must have been his high school graduation. Beside it is a digital clock, its green light declaring the time. 12:25.

We end our tour of Shi Seien's room with Shi Seien himself, lying in a bed with a classic, expensive-looking wood frame, still peaceful in his otherworldly slumber. His room doesn't tell us much about his personality – we can infer from the obvious that he is a very serious, career-driven individual. But nothing in this room gives us a clue as to how he ends up this way.

We cannot ask him the reason for this, for we are merely observers. Our countenance is like an invisible camera – zooming in and out, catching the best possible angle of every situation. Through our sight, we see everything and decide with the judgement bestowed on us from above what these things could mean. We do not intervene. We do not leave any trace behind.

A light suddenly flickers in the room. We think at first that a vehicle sporting halogen lights passed by, causing the disturbance. Light flashes again, and again, and we soon find ourselves to be mistaken. We turn and see the large plasma TV flickering. Is the wake-up timer sounding off? Highly unlikely – the remote is situated near the top shelf of the bookshelf, not anywhere near Seien. The TV continues to flash, but this doesn't seem to faze Seien's slumber at the very least.

We stare at the TV. It flickers, then static. Flicker. Static. Flicker, then suddenly, less static. Slowly, the noise fades, but the screen is still a blur. A flicker occurs again, then the blurry image remains. An image taken by day. The view sharpens slowly. It is a room, flanked by sunlight in stark contrast to the dismal one we are in. Could be a warehouse, a classroom, or a ridiculously large vacant flat. We look harder and see a figure at the center. Seated. A black fedora hat masks his face. Black trenchoat. Black slacks. Black shoes. The figure is watching the scene beyond. Based on his hand gestures, he seems to have been observing intensely. But now that he has revealed his existence, he still refuses to move. He must find the view quite interesting.

We look at the four corners of the television, trying to find an _NHK, BS2, CNN, National Geographic, HBO_, any logo of all channels in cable or otherwise known to man. There is none.

The screen breaks up for a split second, but comes back to same scene – a scene that looks still, but is a definite moving picture, the movements just happen to occur in the intangible. It stabilizes, fades, and resumes.

From the judgement given to us by the cosmos, we are certain that a change is coming to this room. A change that is of great significance.


	3. 1:40 AM

**1:40 AM.**

The _Love Ho_ district. Flanked by buildings with neon signs of every possible color, it is complemented by the merrymaking of men and women who live for the night. Some in a drunken state walk the streets with a stagger, relishing the bliss of the moment. Women with protruding breasts, young and middle-age alike decorate the entrances of the love hotels, inviting everyone from all walks of life to a momentary respite. A respite rested on the foundation of sheer pleasure.

Ryuuki adjusts his baseball cap, pulling it downward. He knows he is blending well in the dead of the night, but it is better to be safe than sorry. He has been walking for quite a while now, and although the _love ho_ district is the last place to be now in his mind, he decides that being situated in this place will be the best to avoid everything. This will be the last place his family – if they cared well enough – will look for him, and there will be no one asking what a person of his stature doing in a shady place like this. They don't have enough time to care.

It is also the perfect place to be awake, and to stay awake.

He walks straight ahead, avoiding everyone's eyes. Due to the massive number of love hotels around him, he couldn't seem to decide which one to come in to. He makes a mental note to come in to the first love ho without a whore guarding the entrance. Unlike the others, his motives for being here are different.

His eyes catch a massive structure overhead, one that is patterned after the medieval Japanese style, its dark blue paint seems to be luminescent even after dark. In a place where most _love hos_ are made with a modern design, this strikes him as an unusual feast for the eyes. Best of all, a tall hulk of a man, with arms crossed around his waist is guarding its entrance.

Ryuuki walks up to the man, who sees him immediately, even from afar, and eyes him menacingly. Ryuuki sees the sign of the love ho adjacent to the bouncer: _Hotel Kogarou._

"I'd like a room, please." He says, looking straight into the bouncer's eyes – not as a challenge, but to acknowledge his presence and to make known his.

"Are you a minor?" A low, husky voice emerges from the bigger man's mouth.

"I'm nineteen." Ryuuki fumbles for his wallet on his jeans pocket and shows his ID. The bouncer frowns and looks at the card closely, then gives it back to him.

"Are you expecting someone?"

"No, just myself."

"Will you be renting any _company_?"

"No, I'm fine by myself."

"Then why stay here?"

Ryuuki shrugs. "Why not?"

The bouncer groans. "Do you have money to pay us? We charge on the high side. If you plan to stay here without any you're in for big trouble."

"I'll pay cash."

The big man snorts. "You interest me, kid. But don't get any bad ideas into that small head of yours." He unfolds his arms and gestures to the way inside. "Welcome to Hotel Kogarou."

Ryuuki nods in acknowlegement, then walks ahead. The hotel entrance is before a decent _zen_ styled garden, complete with a cobbled road leading towards the door. Small floodlights illuminate the bonzai tree and other noticeworthy realizes that this is not the usual _love ho_, and is suddenly glad to have brought extra money.

He slides the door open, and sees a decent lobby that is moderately lighted, with decent tables and chairs front and center. To the the left there are framed daguerreotypes, depicting scenes of ancient history. Straight ahead is a large table, with a lone woman behind it. Standing. Waiting.

A front desk. Ryuuki is a bit surprised with this. He knew that most _love hos_ can operate with minimum face-to-face interaction. But, he has never been in one before. Probably this one is special. He walks up to the girl. He places the old, heavy book that he's been carrying for nearly an hour now on the tabletop and sighs.

"Welcome to Hotel Kogarou!" The young woman smiles at him. "How would you like your stay for tonight?"

"Just a room, not the flashy type," Ryuuki squints at the wall behind the girl, which had a description of the room types available. "I think the standard one should be fine. Do you have room service?"

"Yes, we do."

"I'd like a coffee, please. Actually, I'd appreciate if you can bring a percolator in the room, so I don't have to call for the same thing every now and then."

"If you want, sir, we have special services that may be of interest to you." The young woman brings out a book from her side of the table and opens it. "You can choose from a fantastic selection of women---"

"Just an ordinary room is fine, thank you." Ryuuki says, to which the girl is taken by surprise. "I just need a quiet place to spend the night, that's all. I ... uh ..." he pauses for a while, then looks at the old book he is holding. "I'm studying for school. Midterms are coming. It's an all-nighter."

The girl frowns. "Studying." She says, as if to confirm what she just heard. "In a _love ho._"

"You got that right."

"You've got peculiar taste for spending all-nighters, huh?"

Ryuuki nods a bit too quickly. He sees the young woman frown slightly, then takes the book away from the table top and returns it to the shelf beneath.

To us, she looks ordinary enough – long, black hair tied in an unusual bun behind her back, with a thick portion of hair in both sides of her face tied with a red ribbon. Her brown eyes are large and innocent, and as we realize this we start to deduce her age. Is she in the age of majority? We begin to have our doubts.

"Is it possible to settle the bill now?" Ryuuki asks. "I have to leave in the morning for school, and I may miss paying for the room in haste."

"Oh, sure." The girl turns to the cashier and makes entries on the touch screen monitor. "That will be six thousand yen, sir."

Ryuuki blinks when he heard the amount. The bouncer surely wasn't lying. He takes his wallet out and pulls out a wad of bills, giving it to the girl gingerly. She takes it, and with a push of the button, the bell of the cashier rings. A sale has just been closed.

"Thank you for your patronage." She turns back and opens a rectangular cabinet, which contained the keys to the hotel's rooms. She lifts a finger as she peruses nearly a hundred keys until she finds the one she's looking for. Taking it, she turns to Ryuuki and hands it to him. "Your room number is 379. That's on the third floor. From the elevator, turn right then left on the third corner. Your room is on the left side of that hallway."

Ryuuki nods.

"I'll also have to get your name," she tells him. "For room service. So we can get your percolator up."

"M...my name?" Ryuuki stammers. Giving it to the concierge girl is out of the question – that will be just like paying for the bill with plastic. He has to remain unknown, but due to the demand of the situation, he commits an error that he will not realize until later that night.

"Ran Shuuei."

The girl's eyes widen, as if in surprise. Her eyebrows are arched on her face. "Your name ... is Ran Shuuei?"

Ryuuki nods quickly.

The girl's face is one that didn't exude understanding, but being a paid professional, she recovers quickly and gives a smile. "Very well, Ran Shuuei-san, we will have your percolator up to your room as soon as possible. Enjoy your stay at Hotel Kogarou."

Ryuuki takes the key, spins around quickly and walks towards the elevator. He pulls down his baseball cap again, hiding the embarrassment on his face. For a moment, it crossed his mind that his cover was blown. But what are the odds of that? He pushes the elevator button, highly anticipating his ascent upward to his six-thousand-yen _love ho_ room.


	4. 12:47 AM

**12:47 AM. **

Shi Seien's room.

Nothing much has changed since we last saw his room. Only now, the image in the television is much clear, more defined. The static has dramatically minimized but its transmission is intermittent for some split seconds. Having an HD TV surely has its benefits, but to see something this eerie in the dead of the night makes this feature very unreassuring.

The black man with the tilted fedora hat is still seated front and center. We still feel that his line of sight permeates through his hat, through the TV screen into our present reality. We also notice that his image is more close-up now than awhile back. Could he have moved closer, or did the focus of whatever that's transmitting this image change? We cannot say for sure.

Seien is still lying still on the bed, his face the same as before. The light of the television causes shadows to play on his face, but even that doesn't disturb his slumber.

We know for sure that the man in the television is a living, breathing individual. His shoulders rise a bit when he breathes – he must be taking very deep breaths. His right leg is on a Figure 4 above his left, his elbow resting on his thigh, chin resting on black gloved palm. They way he is dressed makes us think that he may be a businessman, or even a gangster. The fedora hat makes us deduce that he may be a foreigner – locals don't really don these kind of things – but all this is uncertain. We see no hair on his head, no trace of a beard.

He suddenly moves – leaning forward, his facial features still undecipherable, as if he's trying to look harder – then he comes back to his original position. Brooding. Plotting. He's definitely trying to _intervene_.

As much as we want to warn Seien about this impending danger, we cannot. We are not in the position to do so. In Seien's deathly sleep he is unable to sense anything, be aware of anything.

Then, the man on the TV moves again. This time,he doesn't lean forward. He moves his hand and places it on his fedora hat. He does this very solemnly, ceremonially. With hat in tow, he brings his hand down slowly, patiently. The image blackens and flickers. Static appears again. Then, it returns with no introduction whatsoever, and we see the face behind the fedora hat.

A face ... that is faceless. No eyes, nose, ears, mouth. A face that is pale, ridden of emotions, yet has the the power to convey them nonetheless. A face that is made of a glossy, silicone-like front that may pass for a mask, but isn't one – such is its perfection.A face that can cause horror to anyone watching. Anyone except Seien, who is still sound asleep.

Since we are merely observers, we have no choice but to accept that which is in front of us. We shall now refer to him as The Man With No Face.

The image struggles to focus with this revelation. The TV flickers, and more static emerges. But behind all these distractions we see The Man With No Face lean forward, staring – with no eyes – at the scene beyond. Flicker. Static. Flicker. The Man With no Face's sight never truly wavers at the scene beyond.

And what a scene it truly was. A beautiful man, in the cusp of whatever's in between life and death, in a slumber that has withdrawn him completely away from reality.

What a worthy prize he can become.


	5. 2:15 AM

**2:15 AM.**

Ryuuki is sitting up straight, resting his back on pillows he placed on the bed's headboard. The nightlamp is on. He reads slowly, taking his time, just as he did in the convenience store. The smell of brewed coffee is pleasant to his senses – it keeps him wide awake. Without departing his eyes from the pages he takes the coffee cup from the bedside counter to his right, and sips from it. The brew is a significant improvement from the one in the convenience store.

Imagine the flush that came to his cheeks when he heard the knock of room service on his door, announcing the arrival of the coffee percolator for "Ran Shuuei-san". It was the first name that came to his mind that he had no choice but to blurt it out. Still wearing his baseball cap, he opened the door to an older woman, whom he thought was one of the whores until he saw her dressed in a maid's uniform, pattered after the ones worn in maid cafes in Shibuya.

He isn't feeling the least bit sleepy, but he is becoming very bored with what he's reading. He puts it down and stretches his arms and legs on the bed. He tries to lie down and see if sleep will come to him, but all he's feeling right now is the rush of caffeine in his system.

Ryuuki decides to stand up and have a look around his room. The bed's firmness is just right, the sheets are straight, the polyester pillows hardly feel like rock. A small dresser with a medium-sized mirror mounted to the wall is by the right near the window, which has an excellent view of the _love ho_ district. He actually thought it to be very picturesque.

The floor is carpeted. Beige in color, the felt comfortable even with bare feet. It feels nice to free his feet from his sneakers, having worn them for more than 12 hours. The bathroom had a small tub, a counter with towels, soap and shampoo, a small toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. Ryuuki brought his own toiletries, but decides that it will be to his advantage to use what the _love ho_ provides. He paid for it, after all.

He wonders if there's any WiFi spot nearby that he can use. Sauntering to his backpack, which lies on a chair adjacent to a table beside his bed, he pulls out a notebook, places it on the table and turns it on. After the system booted, he sees an alert at the bottom of the screen that a few wireless networks have been detected. Among them is named _Hotel Kogarou_. He smiles, and clicks on it.

His mail is priority, so as soon as he is connected he goes to his webmail and checks it. Online work for school, mails from friends, newsletters on his various hobbies await. Never mind the overflowing emails of either his father or his lackeys demanding to know where he is and why he barely comes home. He has grades to maintain, friends to keep, pleasures – however childish – to enjoy. The situation at home will just keep him from all that.

He opens another tab on his browser and enters a website. The loading takes a while, so he stands up and walks around the room. He picks up the smell of something; what it was he couldn't comprehend at the moment. It is slightly foul. He is about to decide to call for room service again when his knee bumps the side of the bed. Ryuuki feels something hard underneath his foot. Frowning, he raises his leg and looks at the back side of his foot. He catches the sight of blood, but there is no cut, so he goes down on all fours and looks underneath the bed. There is _something_ in there.

He pulls it out, and sees a small contraption made of plastic, nearly transparent save for its skintone color, half covered in blood. He cringes at the sight, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was. He looks at the contours of the thing, and feels the consistency of the blood that it was covered with on his fingertips. It doesn't feel watery, but rather, gel-like, almost slimey.

Ryuuki gasps and drops the plastic to the carpet. He darts toward the bathroom and washes his hands vigorously, then walks briskly to the telephone by the bed counter to dial room service.

"Hi, it's me ... Sh--- Ran Shuuei. Room 379? Yeah, I just found something in my room. Housekeeping must have missed it. It's a diaphragm. A _used _one. Can you clean it up right away? Thank---"

He stops short, as he hears the sound of glass breaking. The sound came from just nearby, maybe just down the hallway. He puts down the receiver and swings the door open.

Outside, a scene is developing. A woman, dressed in flowing silk is flanked by big, sturdy men dressed like the bouncer who greeted him earlier. Some expletives are being yelled by a person beyond these people – he is on the floor, on all fours. Even beyond that stands a woman, probably younger than Ryuuki. Her makeup is all smeared, and she is holding on to a towel that covered her nakedness. She is being held on the shoulder by a tall, slender man, holding a sword in a stance that is commanding.

Ryuuki is seeing the real Ran Shuuei.


	6. 2:53 AM

**2:53 AM. **

In the unholy halls of Hotel Kogarou, a fight is about to happen. Ran Shuuei smirks at the thought of what will happen. He knows this won't be a challenging duel – from the looks of the gangster on the floor, his win will be swift and decisive, and nothing commendable. He slides his other hand – the one which held the whore from shoulder to the curve of her waist, as if for encouragement. Probably, this isn't so bad, he thought.

"You stole ho' from us!" The man on the floor shouts to the direction opposite Shuuei. His broken English is directed to the woman in the center, her red hair tied in a pleasant fashion, her voluptuous breasts in the pink of health, nearly overflowing from her silk low-busted gown. She smiles confidently, as if this fight has already been made.

"I have never seen her in Kogarou before, and you damn well know that your gang set this whole thing up as an excuse to invade this place!" She bellows, her voice a booming contralto. "I didn't think you can stoop as low to establish your presence in this district, but you _gaijin_ gangsters have a lot to learn about credibility in this place!" She raises a hand halfway, and the bouncers who stood by her side in equal number clench their fists, ready to deliver the clobbering.

Beyond all this, Ryuuki is watching from his door, and realizing that things are about to turn ugly, he proceeds to shut his door and lock it tight.

"Ran Shuuei-san!"

In a split second before he closes the door, he opens it again, hearing a familiar voice. As he swings the door, he sees the girl in the concierge, with a broom and dustpan.

"Oh, you!" Ryuuki takes her by the arm and pulls her to his room. "We'd better hide, that thing over there is about to get ugly."

"Oh, that?" She looks to the direction of the ongoing brawl. "That's nothing. Kochou-neesan should have things under control, and _Ran Shuuei-_dono is also around. That's more than the help we need."

Ryuuki gasps in horror. The girl, on the other hand, smiles knowingly. "Now, where is that diaphragm you were talking about, _Ran Shuuei-_san?" She saunters into the room and looks at the floor. "Hmm ... oh, there it is. Yeah, you're right. It does look fresh. But ... these aren't the kind that we have in Hotel Kogarou." She quips, as she leads the diaphragm inside the dustpan. "And the oneesan-tachi of Hotel Kogarou know how to use these things. It shouldn't be all bloody like this." She muses.

Ryuuki turns to her, with a grimace on his face. He is trying to find the words to say – will he explain why he lied about his identity, or will he agree with the young lady about her opinion on the diaphragm? Both options don't seem appropriate.

A thud suddenly erupts from the outside. Both Ryuuki and the young woman look outside, beyond the door and see the gangster being beaten up by Kochou's men.

"You don't have to do anything, Shuuei-sama," Kochou says, "Your sword shouldn't be stained by the likes of this dirtbag."

Shuuei shrugs and sheaths his sword back. "It would have been good exercise."

"Don't even think about it." Kochou turns to the young prostitute beside him. "As for you, we need to talk."

The girl starts saying words that are undecipherable. She is obviously a foreigner, and from her body language we can say that she is begging for mercy and understanding. Nonetheless, Kochou walks up to her and takes her by the hand, pulling her away from Shuuei and the brawl.

Seeing this happen, the young woman springs out of Ryuuki's room and comes front and center. "Kochou-neesan, is there anything I can do to help?"

Kochou raises her eyebrows in surprise. "Oh, Shuurei-chan. You're just in time." She tilts her head to the other girl. "Help this kid out. She's obviously not from around here, and I'm beginning to doubt if she's a prostitute herself. Try to understand her, as with the latter, both of you are pretty much on the same boat."

Shuurei nods. "Do you know what language she speaks?"

"Can't say." Kochou answers. "Definitely not spoken proliferately in this city." She pulls the young girl forward, towards Shuurei. "Let me know how it goes, all right?"

"Of course." She bows to Kochou as she takes her leave. As she raises her head, she sees the Hotel Kogarou bouncers carrying the unwanted foreigner gangster out of the hallway. Upon seeing the young girl, he yells a handful in the language, which brings her to sudden tears. Shuurei holds her head and comforts her.

"Can you beat him more when you're outside, please?" She asks.

"With pleasure, Shuurei-chan," answers one of the bouncers.

She beams in response. "Thank you!" Once they turn towards the main hallway, she slowly looks at Ryuuki and eyes him closely.

"Now, just who the heck are you and why are you using Ran Shuuei-dono's name?"

"I ... uh ..."

"Ryuuki?"

They spin around, and see Shuuei coming towards their direction. His face has a look of sheer surprise.

"Now _this_ is a place where I'd last think you'd come to!" He exclaims. "What in the world are you doing here?" He stands parallel to Shuurei. "If your family knew you're in this place they'd go nuts! Not only they, but the media as well!"

Ryuuki bows his head and looks away.

"Oh, so you know each other?" Shuurei asks. "Well, that is obvious enough. He wouldn't use your name if he wasn't comfortable enough."

"Use my name?" Shuuei frowns and looks at Ryuuki. Then, in a move that we didn't expect, he suddenly laughs and pats him on the back. "That was a pretty bad move, to have used my name in the _love ho_ district, in Hotel Kogarou of all places!" Ryuuki lunges forward and looks up at Shuuei in wonder.

"I'm a regular here. You yourself said I was a womanizer."

Ryuuki bites his lip and tries to smile as he relishes in his stupidity. He hopes that it will pass faster.

"This girl needs some clothes and a place to regroup." Shuurei says. "Is it all right if we use your room, Shuuei-sama?"

"Oh, with pleasure," Shuuei smiles. "But, you'd better keep quiet, because Kouyuu is sleeping." He looks at Ryuuki. "You should come too. The more, the merrier."

Ryuuki nods, gets his things inside the room and runs down the hall. It seems to be the best decision. His room reeked of sex.


	7. 3:00 AM

**3:00 AM.**

Our view changes to Shi Seien's room. At first glance, it looks the same. Darkness its main theme. Uncluttered. Undisturbed.

But wait – something in this room has _drastically_ changed.

The bed is empty. Seien is nowhere to be found. The sheets are wrinkled – a sure sign that there was someone in the bed not too long ago – but is empty. The rest of the room is the same as how we saw it last, sans its owner. What could have happened?

Everything _was_ the same – the TV is still on, but the image it projects has changed greatly. We see The Man With No Face seated _away_ from the screen, facing the opposite direction. We realize now that what is relevant to this situation is happening on the other side. Since we are intangible, we permeate through the plasma screen easily, becoming one of the characters in the very scene that we used to watch. The TV scene has now become tangible around us.

We go overhead, and zoom into The Man With No Face, his black fedora hat on his head, his silicone-like face looks like it is squirming from the inside. He is staring with great intensity to something dead ahead. As if in response to our thoughts, the view switches immediately to the view of The Man With No Face. He is looking at a bed. A bed with Shi Seien sleeping on it.

We look behind us, and see beyond the screen the empty bed where Seien used to lie, then we turn our head back and see him sleeping soundly on this side. We look harder on both directions, comparing, contrasting. The conclusion is undebatable – Shi Seien's existence, somehow, permeated through the TV screen. And in this day-lit room that this TV contained, Seien lies asleep on this TV bed.

We now try to deduce how did this occur. Note that it had been more than two hours since we last viewed this place, so _anything_ could have happened. Did The Man With No Face seep through man-made countenance into reality that isn't man-made in order to claim Seien as his prize? How did he do it? Why? What happens now? A barrage of questions comes into our mind, more than what we can handle. Since we are not omniscient, these questions remain unanswerable.

We look beyond the screen and see the digital clock strike 3:10. Not much time has passed either on the other side, so it may be safe to assume that this temporal world also follows the time of the real world. We look at Seien, who remains still, unaware of what just happened. A chill comes over our intangible being, upon the thought of what situation will be better – him not knowing that he has been taken, or Seien finally waking up, realizing that he has unknowingly passed through the other side.


	8. 3:05 AM

**3:05 AM.**

Inside Ran Shuuei's room, the foreigner girl is still crying. Her measly clothes have been upgraded to an oversized robe, a sign that things are starting to get better. Shuurei gives her a box of tissues, which she takes thankfully, and starts to pull tissue after tissue, blowing her nose unceremonially with it. Shuurei tries to smile for her. She knows she has to be empathic for her.

On the other side, Ryuuki sits by the window, his backpack on his feet, the notebook on the table. He sifts through his mails listlessly. Shuuei comes out from a shower, a mist blows from the bathroom as he comes out. Kouyuu is still sleeping on his side of the bed.

"I'd really like to help you," Shuurei says slowly, in an effort to make the girl understand. "But you need to understand me, and I need to understand you. So ..." She shows her a pen and a small bundle of Hotel Kogarou stationery. "Can you write your _name_ and where you _live_ in here?"

The girl blinks and nods vigorously. She takes the pen and paper and holds both awkwardly, but she starts to write.

"You seem to be all worked up there." Shuuei puts a towel on his head and rubs his hair vigorously. He stands adjacent to Ryuuki.

"School work. Lots of them." He says. "Less time for fun."

"What do you do for fun?"

Ryuuki looks up to him. "Um, not much. I play games. Arcade. MMORPG."

Shuuei frowns. "StarCraft?"

"That's old," Ryuuki makes a face.

Shuuei chuckles. "Any which way, that's interesting."

"You think? Some people say I'm a geek cause I'm into these things."

"No, of course not." Shuuei answers. "It's very normal for a kid your age to like these things."

"Aniue thought so as well."

"Really?"

"He didn't play,but he encouraged me to."

"Oh."

Kouyuu stirs in the bed and groans. He opens his eyes, sits up, and sees a very unfamiliar scene unfolding around him. He is undressed, except for his slacks, which are now wrinkled, his hair in disarray. "What the hell is going on?" He grumbles.

Shuuei turns and walks towards him. "Lots of action while you were sleeping."

"Did I miss anything?"

"You're better off asleep." He kisses Kouyuu softly on the head.

The young girl hands the paper to Shuurei She looks hard at the _romaji_, "So ..." she begins. "Your name is ... Yoo Jin, and you're from ... _dae han min geuk ..._ South Korea?"

The young girl nods. Shuurei smiles broadly at this accomplishment. "So, why are you here?" She gives the paper back to Yoo Jin, and she begins to write.

Ryuuki sifts through his mails, and sees one that catches his eye immediately. The sender of the mail is Shi Senka.

_Chichiue._

He opens it immediately, and reads.

Ryuuki:

I demand you to return home immediately. You have enormous shoes to fill in Seien's absence. Do not be a coward and run away from your responsibilities. You are wasting precious time. Do not make this harder upon yourself.

The mail is dated two days ago. Ryuuki frowns upon it and deletes it immediately. There are others that follow it from people who work closely with his father, all of them containing pretty much the same message, less the harshness of his father's words. He deletes every one of them as well.

He is about to log off when he remembers something in his mailbox that is important. He goes to the menu and clicks on his flagged items. The window loads, and reveals a single mail.

It was one that was sent by his elder brother. A mail that's over three months old.

A lump forms on his throat. He hovers the pointer over the link, and clicks on it. It opens.

Hi Ryuuki,

How is my little brother doing? I have not seen you for quite a while. I'm sure you're very busy with schoolwork. It's hard to believe that we haven't seen each other for weeks, even if we live under the same roof. Maybe we should think about living in a smaller house.

I'd love to see you tomorrow night. Hope you aren't too busy. I have something to tell you. Let's meet outside the sitting room after 8PM. I'll be out from a meeting by then. Till then, I'll be waiting.

He clenches his fists as he closes the window and shuts his notebook down, then puts it back with haste inside his bag.

Shuurei takes the paper back from the young girl, and looks at the scribble. "Hm ... you came here by boat?" She sees the girl nod vigorously. "And you came at night. Were you alone?" The girl nods again.

"Why did you come to Tokyo, in the first place?" Shuurei hands the pen and paper back to her, but it seems that she didn't need it anymore.

"_Shi-go-to." _

"Work? Work!" Shuurei echoes. She turns to the men in the room. "It looks like she was trafficked here. Maybe those foreigner gangsters had a hand at it."

"I wouldn't be surprised." Shuuei says. "A lot of that happens after dark."

"Poor thing." Shuurei puts a hand on the girl's shoulders. "And she came here looking for work. She didn't mean any harm." Feeling the comforting hand on her shoulders, the girl starts to cry again.

Kouyuu, now dressed, peers over the scene. "Human trafficking is a business, after all." His voice is hard, but we can see the sympathy in his eyes. He turns back and pulls his hair together.

"Even if it's a business, it's wrong!" Shuurei exclaims.

"A lot of legit businesses unknowingly traffic persons, you know." Kouyuu says, running his fingers through his aqua colored hair.

"That's impossible! Like, what kind of businesses?"

"Transportation. Human Resources." Kouyuu answers. "Basically any business with _people _in it" He turns to Shuuei. "This brothel that you frequent to is a good example."

"It's just a matter of knowing who you work for, or work with." Shuuei counters.

"Poor thing." Shuurei sighs, handing the tissue box to the girl again.

Shuuei, now dressed in the same clothes that we saw him a few hours ago, comes near to Shuurei and the Korean girl. "I think we men should leave the both of you here for the meantime. The sight of us may scare her, for all we know."

Shuurei turns to him and nods. "I think that's a good idea, Shuuei-sama."

"Well, then." He turns to Kouyuu first, then Ryuuki. "Shall we take a walk?"

"We don't have that much of a choice." Kouyuu shrugs, then walks towards him.

"How about you, Ryuuki?"

"I'm coming." He starts to gather his book and backpack.

"Great. So, we'll leave everything to you, all right, Shuurei?"

"Leave it to me." Shuurei nods.

"Let's go! We have a few more hours left before daylight!" He opens the door and saunters out. Kouyuu steals a look at the foreigner girl before he leaves. Ryuuki's face is downcast. Being the last one out, he shuts the door behind him.


	9. 3:20 AM

**3:20 AM.  
**  
We are inside the make believe, yet all too real realm of The Man With No Face. Even with the passing time, the light shining in this vast room remains constant, as if its source never moves or falters. He is still looking straight ahead at his prize, an unmoving Shi Seien.

He is just as still as he was when we were last here. But as observers, we know that something should happen after this. If Seien will not make a move, then The Man With No Face will. It may not be happening now, but it will happen soon. Very soon. Time passes, and neither of them budges from their place. We focus our energies on the both of them, making sure that each miniscule movement is given notice.

Something just moved in Seien's face.

Even if we're anticipating all possible movements, we are still taken aback with this. We train our vision to Seien alone, as if to verify if this observation is correct. His face is at rest. Ethereal. Lifeless. Then, a twitch emerges from his lips. And another. A vibration starts from his chin to his lower lip, like a tremor. Something is happening within Shi Seien.

Soon, the twitch moves to his cheeks, underneath the eyes, and in between his brows. His fingers curl upward into fists, then straightens again. His lips finally part. His eyelids now twitch, first shutting tight, then back to its normal state, then tight again. It's like watching a robot being powered up for the first time, but since we are talking about a human being, we can conclude that Seien is gradually emerging into a state of wakefulness.

Even his shoulders now start to move after many weeks of atrophy. They move up, and down. His head tilts up. His hands form into fists, firmly gripping the linen sheets. Then, he buries his hands in the mattress, and with this sheer force, he rises upward. The way he does so is slow, but the move is calculated. When his torso is finally perpendicular to the bed, his eyelids move upward, until they are completely open, revealing eyes that remind us of emeralds. His long lashes bat rapidly with the sudden abundance of light. He raises his arm to shield his eyes from the unforgiving light. Even his body seems to be fighting his state of consciousness. His legs curl up. Is he in pain? We don't hear him flinch, nor can we see his face clearly due to his arm. But he remains on this position for a while.

Time passes. His face finally re-emerges after a few minutes. His eyelids seem to be more stable, only blinking once every few seconds. He looks at both his hands first, and having been satisfied with their state, he looks at the unusual surroundings, his green eyes moving unstably. He realizes immediately – this is not his room.

He stares directly ahead, and for the first time, acknowledges the presence of The Man With No Face sitting in front of him. His gaze suddenly darkens and becomes menacing.

"Who are you?" His voice is low and cracked – his vocal chords may have yet to wake up. "Why did you bring me here?"

The Man With No Face says nothing, but leans forward, seemingly in response. Seien's brows come together, as if he is trying to comprehend something. We do not hear anything else as this transpires. Seien's mouth opens slowly.

"Your prize? Me? For what? Who sent you?" He demands.

The Man With No Face is silent, but he shifts his position ever so slightly.

"What is there to win when you took me? I am not worth anything until I have my father's inheritance!"

The Man With No Face leans backward, and folds his hands into a steeple. His position is relaxed.

Seien's eyes move rapidly, left-right, left-right. His lips quiver, as he hears the answer in his head, in his own voice. His eyes widen unnaturally. His hands grasp the bedsheets again.

"No!" He shouts. "You cannot have me! I am not finished yet!" He screams hoarsely. He shifts his entire weight to the side and gets up from bed, but having not stood up for a long time, he wobbles and falls down to the ground. He grimaces with the pain. Just as he gathers whatever strength he had gained from waking up, he feels a strong force pulling him up from the ground. He looks to the left, and sees The Man With No Face. He is immensely tall, taller than he had expected, taller than what we expected. And immensely strong, that he is able to lift Seien's weight effortlessly with just a hand.

Seien tries to regain his footing, but he realizes that even his feet are up in the air. He gasps, then retreats his left elbow and pushes it onto The Man With No Face's solar plexus. His chest is hard, but he doesn't budge. Seien hits him again, but it is to no avail. The Man With No Face turns toward the bed and throws Seien like a ball, sending his entire body slamming onto the mattress. He cries out loud, the force stunning him completely.

The Man With No Face hovers over him, in his hands he carries a long, steel chain. Seien's eyes widen in horror, He pins Seien with one hand to the bed, and starts to tie him in place with the chain. His whole body will be tied down. Seien tries to squirm away from his grasp over him, but he is too strong. No adrenaline rush can possibly make him win over this otherworldy being. He now feels the cold, unforgiving chains strapped closely to his body, tearing his clothes. He is unable to move his arms or legs. He is rendered helpless, with just one hand, by The Man With No Face.

The Man With No Face now closes in his silicone-like mask over Seien. Cold sweat begins to break on his face. Then, he feels a sudden, unbearable weight over his body. The Man With No Face is over him. He straddles his legs on Seien's hips, and presses the top of his head on Seien's forehead. He breathes rapidly, his eyes rapidly move in sheer horror. He knows this is something he cannot overcome.

At the corner of his eye, he sees the gloved hands of The Man With No Face come near. His hands grasp his silver hair, which he suddenly pulls, making Seien scream with pain. When the force exerted is over, Seien sees a clump of his hair on the hand of The Man With No Face, which he casually dumps to the ground. He extends his other hand this time, on the other side of his head, gathers his hair and pulls it with the same splitting force.

Tears begin to spring on Seien's eyelids. The pain is already unbearable, but the voices in his head are more horrifying.

_You can never go back again._

You can never go back again.

No one knows you're here.

You can never go back again.

"Let me go back to sleep again!" He pleads, but it is unheard by anyone except him and The Man With No Face. "Let me go back! I have to go back!"

_You can never go back again._

"Let me go back! Let me go now!"

_You can never go back again._

The Man With No Face shows his other hand, with a clump of wavy, silver hair on its palm. He lets it fall on the ground. Now with both hands, he closes them in on Seien's neck, fastening them slowly, making sure there is no gap in between his fingers, making sure that his work is clean.

Seien feels helpless, Every ounce of hope left within him is vanquished as he feels the cold hands grasp his neck. "I want to go back! Let me go back to sleep!"

The voice in Seien's head stops. Silence.

Then, a strong, firm grip strangles his neck. Seien's head snaps backward with the force, his mouth grasping for air that his nose couldn't anymore, but as the seconds progressed even this is futile. His fingers twist unnaturally as all the air is drained from him, as all the life is drained from him.

Blood erupts from his mouth and nose. The light on his eyes begin to fade. His lips begin to close as his eyelids start to droop. But as if in one last effort, he mouths a faint cry for help.

"Ryuu ... ki ..."

A cracking sound echoes around the room. The Man With No Face slowly lets go of Seien's neck, rises from his dominant position over Seien and walks away.

Shi Seien is sleeping soundly, once again.

Since we are just observers, there is nothing we could have done to prevent this. It may seem redundant, but it is important to emphasize that our role is to see, and say nothing. Seeing that the climax of this situation is over, our form permeates back to reality, beyond the TV screen into Seien's room. The bed is still empty, and we see in the screen the other bed beyond, the one which contained Seien's body.

The screen flickers. Static returns. It slowly grows, intensifies, until the image of the day-lit room is completely covered. Flicker. Static. Flicker. Static. Darkness.


	10. 3:43 AM

**3:43 AM.  
**  
A four-digit number is being dialed. Kou Shuurei twirls the telephone cord on her index finger, as she waits for her call to be answered. Beyond her, the Korean girl wipes her face with her umpteenth Kleenex, but she seems to have calmed down significantly, since Shuuei and the others have left the room.

Finally, an answer comes on the other line. "Yes?"

"Kochou-neesan?" Shuurei says. "It's me. I think I figured out who this girl is and how we can help her."

"That's great news." A sigh emerges from the other line. "That girl is going to cause me real problems. So, what is it?"

"She says she is brought here from South Korea because she's expecting lo land a job here in Tokyo." She twirls her finger to the opposite direction this time, untangling the phone cord. "But I'm guessing ..."

"Things went horribly wrong."

"Most likely. That gansgster awhile ago is probably in the business of ferrying young girls like her illegally here. He must get a hefty sum for it." She stands up from the chair, carries the telephone cradle with her and starts to pace around the room. "What I don't understand is how she ends up in Hotel Kogarou. What happened, Kochou-neesan?"

"It's a set-up." Kochou answers with a hint of fury. "You are no stranger these things, Shuurei-chan. People are not afraid to get theri hands dirty in this part of the city."

"What are they after?"

"They want to prove a point. Those gangsters probably could not accept that a woman like me heads Tokyo's underground. What happened tonight isn't really a big thing. They simply want to be noticed."

"So ... they're envious."

"And stupid. They must have sneaked in that girl with someone posing as a customer, then that man you saw awhile ago comes in here later on to have a fuck. She chooses one of our girls, then he suddenly cancels. So, he does his job on the girl, then calls a foul against us because the girl is resisting him."

"Which proves my point that the girl isn't here for this kind of work."

"He then makes a scene, saying that he'll report this to his danna, whom he says is allied with a bunch of other assholes who want me out of the scene. I simply told him to get the hell out of here. Their threats are worthless. Aside from the fact that they are _gaijin_, they don't possess the balls to beat me."

"But how does the guy know where the girl is?"

"The girl came in with a man. I checked the security cameras and saw her coming in with a _salary man_. He also looked Korean, so he's clearly involved in all this. He rents a room, then checks out after a few. He leaves the girl behind, probably in the WC. We don't have CCTV in there though, so all this is probable."

"The girl must have thought that he will meet whoever her employers will be in here."

"Maybe. So, the man checks out, then the gangster comes in after a while. And the rest unfolds, just as how I told you." Kochou heaves a sigh. "How is she? Is she still crying?"

"She's much better now. We're in Shuuei-sama's room. He, Kouyuu-sama and that other guy went out."

"I really wish that we didn't involve Shuuei-sama in all this. He's one of my top benefactors."

"I don't think he sees anything bad in what happened. He did offer his room." Shuurei sits down again, and places the telephone cradle on the table gingerly. "Kochou-neesan, I think we should send her to the Korean embassy. Or to Social Services. Probably the embassy will be best."

"My lawyer is already on it. He'll be bringing her to the embassy. He may be here in thirty minutes, so make sure she's dressed decently before you bring her down here."

"I knew you're already on top of it." Shuurei giggles. "No problem. I'll work on that." She answers.

"Thank you, Shuurei-chan."

"Kochou-neesan?"

"Mm?"

"Kouyuu-sama said that these things happen without the knowledge of most businesses." Shuurei's voice is mellow. "I don't know. It's ... disturbing." She pauses, looks at the girl across her and bites her lip. "She's just as old as I am. I'm just thinking aloud. If this happens a lot, to girls like her ... it could have happened to me. And the thought of that scares me."

"Oh, Shuurei-chan," Kochou sighs. "There are a lot of things that we encounter that are horrible and evil. "I see a lot of them happen in this brothel. But, in this kind of business, or life in general, you have to fight to survive."

"Right now, I'm imagining," Shuurei says. "This girl, she may have come from a poor family. She must want to bring food to the table, so in her desperation she seeks help. And in her desperation, she ends up like this." She bites her lip harder. "Kochou-neesan, am I not ... like her?" Tears start to well up from her eyes.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry that you're upset."

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Shuurei wipes her eyes quickly. She doesn't want the girl across her to see her crying. "I do what I do here to help Otousama. I don't really care what other people say, as long as I do my job well and help him out."

"You're a strong girl. You're smart. You have a father who loves you and protects you. I'm sure you won't falter." Kochou reassures her.

"Mm." Shuurei nods. "And I have you. I know you won't let those things happen to me."

A shrill laugh erupts from the other end of the line. "You're right! You have me. If those lowlives even dare to lay a finger on you, I'll beat their sorry lives out of their bodies!"

Shuurei laughs. "Don't beat them too hard."

"There's no such thing as 'too hard'." Kochou says firmly. "Now, get that girl ready and bring her down to the lobby immediately. Make her look decent."

"Yes." Shuurei stands up. Just when she is about to say goodbye, she suddenly thinks of something. "By the way, Kochou-neesan, what room did the guy stay in?"

"The gangster? Room 379."

Shuurei's eyes widen. "Wha-what?!"

"Why?"

"I let a customer in there!" She exclaims. "The one who's with Shuuei-sama now!"

"You did _what_?"

"I didn't notice that it was marked occupied in the PC when he checked in." She scratches her head furiously. "Oh ... how come I didn't notice? He even found the used diaphragm underneath the bed!"


	11. 3:50 AM

**3:50 AM.  
**  
Not far away from Hotel Kogarou is a park. In the morning, the trees illuminate with the sunshine and its grounds are bustling with activity. Kids flying kites. Mothers with children in tow taking a short detour when they take them to school. Musicians with their instruments of mastery.

At night, this changes drastically. Beggars make their bed on the grass. Couples make out by the shadows of the trees, their leaves now give the eerie glow of moonlight. Scantily dressed women walk around, showing their assets and fares to random men passing by.

A UCC coffee can falls on a vendo machine receptacle. Ryuuki takes it and pulls the ring open. He drinks from it, then walks toward Shuuei and Kouyuu, who are already seated comfortably in one of the larger benches of the park. On Shuuei's hand is another Kirin Light. Kouyuu has the same.

"You don't drink, kid?" Kouyuu asks him.

"Not in the mood to." Ryuuki answers, and sits on the bench beside Shuuei.

"Last time I saw you, you were also drinking coffee." Shuuei points out. "That's nearly four hours ago. Now, you're drinking again." He squints at the coffee can, as if to read it. "And that's a pretty intense brew. You aren't much of an addict, huh?"

"I actually like tea more." Ryuuki replies.

"Tea?" Kouyuu exclaims. "Then why can't you have enough of coffee?"

"Well ..." he hesitates, and turns the can around in between his palms. "Tea calms me. Coffee stimulates."

"That's a good point." Shuuei glances over Kouyuu.

"So, you're drinking coffee to stay awake." Kouyuu says, in definite conclusion.

Ryuuki nods. Kouyuu still doesn't exude a look of understanding.

"You have to have sleep once in a while." Shuuei takes a swig on his bottle. "No one can function well without decent rest."

"I don't feel like it."

"Aren't you getting sick with what you're doing?"

"I feel fine."

Shuuei shrugs. "If you say so."

Ryuuki takes a drink from the can and sighs. We focus slowly on him. Faint dark circles are underneath his eyes, yet his eyelids don't seem to droop. We see his hands, and they are shaky as he held the can.

"This park sure is different at night." Kouyuu quips.

"You think?" Shuuei asks.

"The difference is astounding. You don't see this many whores in broad daylight. Are you blind, Shuuei?"

"That was was more of a rhetorical question."

"Oh, forget you." Kouyuu takes a down off his own bottle. "Makes you think what it will be like if you combine what happens in the morning with what goes on at night." He smirks. "How about kids playing around, then a whore comes to them and asks if they want to play with her?"

"I didn't think you could be that morbid."

"I actually expected you'll be amused with the thought."

"You hate women, Kouyuu."

"That doesn't mean I can't talk about them."

"Should I get you another bottle?"

Kouyuu archs his eyebrows, then downs the bottle entirely. He puts it down on the pavement, the bottle clanging on the ground as it lands unceremonially on the concrete. Shuuei chuckles, then stands up and walks toward the vendo machine, his own bottle in tow.

"You're right."

Kouyuu turns to his right. "Huh?"

"You're right, about what you said." Ryuuki says, his head turns from right to left, as he takes a good look at the park. "This place is really different at night." He looks at Kouyuu. "Makes you wonder what's real and what's not."

"Meaning?"

"Well ..." Ryuuki pauses. "When people usually talk about parks, they say that it's a great place to spend your day outdoors. While they don't usually say what time of the day they're referring to, most people will assume that it's daytime." He turns his can around his hands again.

"But this place now is just as alive as it is in the morning ... just in a different kind of way. It makes you wonder if a park like this is truly a _park_, conformed to the way society defines one."

Kouyuu is silent for a while. "Society defines a lot of things crookedly, you know. Some things prevalent here are based on one-sided assumptions. You'd have to take the extra effort to penetrate through it, and see everything in a different light."

"Since I've spent my nights awake, I started seeing a lot of things differently."

"How long have you been like this?"

"Going on a month and a half."

"Have you seen a doctor?"

"Haven't really tried."

"So, what do you plan to do?"

"If it passes, it passes."

Shuuei comes back with two new bottles. He hands one to Kouyuu and sits down. "Sure you don't want it?" He offers the other bottle to Ryuuki.

"I'm fine, thank you." Ryuuki replies. He sees Shuuei put the bottle down on the ground.

"I've been adopted when I was a child." He grabs the bottle opener from Shuuei's jeans pocket. "My foster father is the head of one of the biggest family conglomerates around. But, he doesn't make me inherit his surname. Instead, I get this seemingly ordinary last name. _Li_." He wipes the top of the bottle before he takes a drink. "At first I didn't understand it. If he really, truly wanted me as a son, he would have named me differently. For many years, I questioned his motives a lot, to the point that I even doubted if my adoption was sincere – if he really wanted to be a father to me."

Ryuuki looks at him in wonder. Shuuei, in contrast looks straight ahead, with a knowing look on his face. He must have heard this story before.

"But, I later learned that there's a reason behind it." Kouyuu goes on. "He knows too well that there are a lot of strings attached if he will bestow his family's name on me, and it may bring me undue stress. He thinks it's not fair." A faint smile appears on his face. "He wanted me to be free." He pauses, and stares at his bottle. "I guess … that just goes to show, not everything in this life can be deciphered in clear-cut terms."

"Not everyone is as lucky as you are." Shuuei sighs, and takes a drink from his bottle. He empties it completely. "My brothers dictated my every move in the beginning. They made me learn how to use a sword – and to use it darn well, for that matter." He takes the full bottle on the ground, fumbles for the bottle opener on Kouyuu's lap, and opens it. "There were also other things – laws, politics, sciences, the works. They introduce me to a bunch of uninteresting people." He drinks from the bottle, his gulps audible to both men.

"But in the end, when I finished my studies, they made me decide what to do with my life." He gives a short laugh. "Can you imagine what a complete shock that was? For two decades, I've lived my life with everything laid out for me, and suddenly they hand me my freedom, just like that. I thought I would go crazy." He breathes out. "So, I joined the military. I was promoted from within. I left and joined the police. They let me join their SWAT team."

"Is it worth it?" Ryuuki asks. "Getting your freedom?"

"Of course it is." Shuuei answers emphatically. "It's hard at first, because you get the feeling that having complete control is having no control at all. And, there's that inevitable wishing of having done things differently so I didn't have to end up in this or that situation. But, it's been a great ride." He smiles broadly. "I've got a high rank in the force. I'm paid ridiculously high for a public servant. I get to bed beautiful women every night. And ..." He nudges Kouyuu's side.

"Watch it!" Kouyuu exclaims, putting his hand on the side of his stomach.

"How about you, Ryuuki?"

"Me?"

"Yeah." Shuuei turns to him, and suddenly, so does Kouyuu. "You're in the top heap amongst the three of us. You're a Shi. You must have awesome demands. I know for a fact that Shi Senka isn't the least bit merciful."

"Well ... yeah, that's true." Ryuuki frowns a bit, pondering on what to answer. "But as I listened to the both of you, I don't think I can really relate to both of your situations. I guess ... I've been given my freedom from the beginning."

Shock is evident on both Shuuei and Kouyuu's faces. "You've got to be kidding." Kouyuu shakes his head with disbelief.

"It's true." Ryuuki answers. "The truth is, Chichiue doesn't really pay attention to me."

"Why?"

"Well, to start with, I'm just a son of one of his mistresses." Ryuuki answers, the manner by which he does so seems very natural. "Chichiue had a lot, but he doesn't have any children with them. I guess my existence was ... an accident. So, I'm guessing from that basis alone, I'm not really of much worth to him."

He empties the coffee can. "My mother left my father for another man, and she left me with him. So, I'm kind of like excess baggage to him. I pretty much lived a normal life, for a Shi."

"But your brother ..." Shuuei says.

Ryuuki nods slightly. "Seien-aniue's situation is much, much more different." He adjusts his baseball cap, pulling it downward. "For as long as I can remember, he's been made to learn a lot of things. He's been involved in the business at a very young age. Chichiue takes notice of him more, much more than me. His demands for him are also just as much."

"So, Shi Senka's attention was on him." Shuuei says, taking a short drink. "So, you can pretty much do everything that you wanted."

"Well … not really." Ryuuki answers. "I really didn't know what to do when I was a child. Being highly unnoticed, I received zero guidance. But Seien-aniue helped me out with that. Although I'm just his half-brother, he cared a lot for me." His voice softens. "When I was a kid, he'd teach me some things that he learned before. He also conviced Chichiue to send me to school. But, being the unwanted kid, I wasn't homeschooled like him." A smile appears briefly on his face, but it is gone as soon as it came. "I went through school like a normal kid, just like a commoner."

"Even your entrance to _Toudai_ had no intervention from your father?" Shuuei asks.

Ryuuki shakes his head. "None at all. I passed the exam."

Shuuei and Kouyuu exchange glances.

"That's ... wow ... I'm ... " Kouyuu stammers.

Shuuei tries to recollect himself from the shock. "A lot of people would give an arm and leg to get into _Toudai_."

"How did you get in?" Ryuuki asks.

"Scholarship. Mad sword skills, remember?" Shuuei smirks, then points at Kouyuu. "He could have gotten in with a scholarship too, but he opted to take the exam anyway. In the end, he passed _and_ got the scholarship."

"Oh, wow. Scholarship." Ryuuki says. "I couldn't be that lucky."

"But you _passed_ the exam! The exam was your only leverage!" Kouyuu exclaims. "That in itself is an accomplishment."

"Aniue thought so too. He was overjoyed when he learned I passed _Toudai_. Chichiue, on the other hand, gave a nod or something. Not really sure if it registered."

"So, you're a noble, who isn't constrained with the usual demands of the affluent in this society." Kouyuu says. "Now that I think about it, your situation is very interesting."

"Why?"

"It's a complete deviation from the role you're supposed to fulfill. And, it's not just that, per se." Kouyuu dangles his bottle down. "It's the complete opposite from your brother's. You've been living together for the longest time, yet both of you live very different lives. He lives a life that is strictly confined to what society expects of him – to be a competent heir to a ridiculously large _zaibatsu_. Up until now – or, until he slept – he has acted in accordance to the expectations of the people around him. It's like all of it is predestined. And, living in a life where everything is laid out for you, one has the tendency to expect that everyone else's actions will be just like that – calculated and precise." He smirks.

"I should know. I worked as a consultant for him when a merger had to be done between one of the Heki _zaibatsu_'s electronics venture and your family's IT software company. He's a perfectionist. He demands it, breathes it. Second best is not acceptable. And he's a slave driver, no less."

"You can't really blame him, you know?" Shuuei tells him after a quick drink. "If he is as you say, I bet he's online 24/7 so he can keep up with everything that's happening in the _zaibatsu_." He glances at Ryuuki, who nods his head vigorously.

"Still, I thought it was inhumane." Kouyuu insists. "He's very serious. Brooding. Nearly impossible to decipher." He eyes Ryuuki intensely. "You, on the other hand, are the reverse. You possess complete freedom. Though things were not served to you on a silver platter, you worked hard to get them nonetheless. I think you're a much easier person to be with." He takes a short swig.

"It's just like what you said in 7-Eleven, Shuuei. He's _normal_." He finishes. "Totally, complete opposites."

"Let's not forget," Shuuei adds, raising his bottle as if to raise a point. "On the subject of opposites." He steals a glance from Ryuuki. "Seien, you say, does nothing but sleep nowadays. You, on the other hand, are wide awake."

"And even with that both of you manage to get along!" Kouyuu groans. "The logic of it escapes me!" He downs the rest of the beer.

"Yeah, one way or another, I guess." Ryuuki says softly.

Time passes. The three of them watch the scene in front of them unfold. Overhead, the morning stars are still glowing fiercely, refusing to give up the night. Kouyuu stretches his arms and yawns.

"All this serious talk makes me want to doze off again."

Shuuei nods. "Should we go back?"

"I'd like that." Kouyuu stands up. "Shuurei must be finished with that girl by now."

Shuuei stands up and does his own stretching as well. He looks at Ryuuki. "Shall we?"

Ryuuki nods, pulling his baseball cap down again. He stands up with the two of them and start to make their way back to Hotel Kogarou. Kouyuu blazes their trail ahead.

"Oi, Kouyuu, shouldn't you be doing that?" Shuuei calls out to him. "You might get lost again."

"Shut up, Shuuei. I know the way." He growls. "How hard is it to go damn straight?"

Shuuei smiles and leans toward Ryuuki. "I guess ... I should get him drunk more often when we go out, huh?"

Ryuuki can only smirk as he tags along.


	12. 5:10 AM

**5:10 AM.  
**  
Shi Seien's room.

The room is no longer vacant. Seien is back on _this side_ now.

His head faces the ceiling. His face is calm. The minimal rise and fall of his chest still strikes us as irregular. Even with what transpired on the other side, he remains whole and undisturbed, but his consciousness remains locked away in a disturbing slumber.

How did he manage to get back? Was his apparent doom on the other side instrumental to his return? But, if that is so, how come he comes back alive on this side? We look at his head – his scalp isn't bloodied, his neck isn't crooked. Though we are observers, and our judgement is bestowed on us from the above, we are not omniscient. We do not have all the answers.

So, we have no choice but to eliminate all these questions from our shapeless existence, and accept that Shi Seien did escape from the TV room, away from the murderous grasp of The Man With No Face, and made it safely, spirit, soul and body, into his room. It is useless to be confused, more so remain confused. We won't be able to fulfill the task we are set off to do with these distractions.

We notice that a faint light has broken into the room. The sun's rays are starting to show on the horizon, marking the arrival of daytime. With this, the eerie shadows of this room will surely be broken, and Seien will remain asleep in a room that takes respite from the troughs of darkness.

But, will things really end this way?


	13. 4:05 AM

**4:05 AM.  
**  
The three men have arrived at Hotel Kogarou. Ryuuki is thinking if he should spend whatever time he has left in _that_ room. Staying in Shuuei and Kouyuu's room is also out of the question – he doesn't want to be in their way. As he ponders upon it, he sees someone waving at him. He looks ahead, and sees the girl who attended to him earlier in the lobby. She's waving her hands vigorously, as if she is demanding him to notice her.

"Ryuuki, do you want to ..." Shuuei begins.

"No, thank you. She's calling me." He answers.

Shuuei turns to the direction of the front desk and nods. "We'll be seeing you, then." He turns back and heads for the elevator. Kouyuu also looks at him, then follows suit.

Ryuuki walks toward the front desk, to the girl whom he met for the first time on the very same spot a few hours ago.

Shuurei puts down her hand as she sees him come near. Ryuuki puts his hands down on the mahogany table. "You were waving?"

She nods, then hands him a few thousand and hundred bills. Ryuuki frowns upon them and counts. "Six thousand yen ... I don't understand." He poses a confused look at Shuurei.

"We're giving you a refund." Shuurei tells him. "Bad night. Bad service. Half of it was my bad." She admits, scratching her head in embarrassment. "Your room was actually still booked when I gave it to you. Long story. But yeah, the owner approved a refund, so that money's yours."

"I see." Ryuuki nods. "Thank you." He grabs his wallet from his pocket and puts the bills inside them neatly.

"The diaphragm you found underneath the bed is proof enough." Shuurei tells him.

"Yeah. And that thing that happened along the hallway."

"That ... is actually related to what you found in your room, believe it or not."

"Really?"

Shuurei nods. "Long story. But everything's been sorted out, so you don't have to worry about a thing."

Ryuuki puts his wallet back into his pocket. "Would you mind if I sat with you?" He asks. "It's all right if you say no ..."

"Oh, that's no problem at all. I have an extra chair here." She answers, then motions to a seat beside her that is invisible to Ryuuki on his side. He then goes around the front desk and leads himself inside, walking towards the vacant chair. It is moderately high. He sets his backpack on the floor and sits down.

"So ..." He begins by taking a look around him. "You sit here all night, huh."

"Yeah. I do front desk duties. I also do the bookkeeping when it's the end of the month."

"Oh really? How are you doing, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Last year's earnings were much better." She answers. "Recession is really hitting the industry hard, but strangely enough, a bulk of our income this year is coming from tourists seeking low-cost accommodations."

"Low cost? My room is not really on the low side." Ryuuki tells her.

"That's low compared to the hotels outside the _love ho_ district." Shuurei counters. "We've got a lot of businessmen coming over to stay, so to accommodate them we've converted some of our ... flashy rooms to the standard ones. You simply have to go where the business is to survive."

Ryuuki nods.

"Um ... I'm sorry ..." He says sheepishly. "I didn't quite get your name earlier."

"Oh ... yeah, I haven't introduced myself." She extends a hand. "Kou Shuurei. Pleased to meet you."

Ryuuki's eyes widen. "_Kou_?" He exclaims. "As in, _the_ Kou family?"

She nods. "You got that right."

"You have got to be kidding."

"I know, I know. You'll say 'what is a young girl from the Kou family doing in brothel, working there, of all places?' – or something like that, right? I get that a lot."

"Well, this is definitely one of the last places I'll go to if I have to look for someone like you." He takes her hand and shakes it.

"Point taken." She says soflty, and lets go of his hand. "I have my reasons, though." She thumbs through the frills of her skirt. We notice for the first time what she is wearing. Pink, long-sleeved blouse underneath a red jacket. White, pleated skirt that's just above the knee and knee-high white heeled boots. She is dressed modestly compared to the usual couture of the _love ho_ district.

"Even if I come from a noble family, I'm not very well-off." She begins, folding her fingers outward to make a stretch. "I live in a small apartment in the suburbs, and we don't really earn much. I'm the only daughter, and my father works in the city library. So, I help him out by working myself."

"Can't he get a more high-paying job than that?"

"Well, for some reason, he's very happy with his job there. Can't really say why. I did try to convince him to find some other work, even a _baito_. But, at the end of the day, I'm just his daughter. I can't really impose." She pauses, then turns her head to Ryuuki suddenly.

"Oh, don't get me wrong. Otousama is wonderful. He's just hardheaded, that's all."

Ryuuki nods. "Yeah, I get it."

"So, when I was younger, I started looking for work that's suitable for me. It had to be a night job, cause I go to school in the morning. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people like me in the city who are also looking for one. The competition can be quite fierce. Being a minor also doesn't help my situation at the least. To cut the long story short, in my desperate search for a job, I ended up there, at the entrance of Hotel Kogarou. You can imagine how scared I was at first when I saw the bouncer there." She makes a short laugh. "But, I held back my tears and demanded, 'I want to work for you!'. And so, here I am."

"Wow, it's a good thing you weren't hired to be …"

"Oh," She waves her hand. "That was never an option for me, but Kochou-neesan – she's the owner – met me later that night and told me I can start the next night. I told my father, and I remember him having a blank look on his face at first … but later on he sounded very happy about it." She thumbs her hair slowly.

"Later on, Kochou-neesan would tell me that Otousama came here and asked her – while bowing low, mind you – to give me a job that's suitable." Shuurei smiles. "I was so embarrassed when I first heard the story! But from the beginning, she had other plans for me. First, I was assigned to housekeeping. Then, bookkeeping – I'm pretty good with math. Just two months ago I was assigned to the front desk.

"So … there you have it." She sighs and smiles to him. "That's why I'm here."

"That's amazing." Ryuuki tells her. "But, I'm thinking … you can easily get support from your family if you're having a hard time. I know everybody's pretty much in the same boat now, facing hard times and all, but family is family, right?"

"Well … I'd like to think we have that option." Shuurei answers. "But, I've never heard Otousama ask for help from our main house. Actually, I think our main house already reached out to us, but he refused." She frowns a bit when she says this. "I try not to get into all that."

"Oh, I'm sorry if I said anything wrong."

"No, not at all. You're right with what you said, family is family."

They are silent for a while. Ryuuki sees the uniformed women from housekeeping walking about, keeping themselves busy. Not too much of the love ho's women are walking about now, for the night is nearly over.

"I wish I can be more useful to my family." He says softly. Shuurei looks at him, but doesn't say anything.

"Can I … tell you something I've never told anyone before?"

Shuurei blinks in surprise. "Sure, if you feel comfortable about it."

"I have an older brother. He's much older than I am, by seven years. He's my only sibling."

"Okay."

"He's asleep. He's been sleeping nonstop. He's been at it for more than three months now."

"Three months!?"

"Yup. And I don't think it will stop at just that."

"He never wakes up?"

"No. Well, I'm actually not sure. But we've not seen him awake for a while." Ryuuki knits his brows. "I'd like to think he does, just to be optimistic about things. The maids in my house place food and water on his table, and when they come back the next day, they'll find them slightly disturbed. The change though isn't that drastic – the way the _hashi_ is placed on the table suggests that they have been used, and pieces of vegetables seem to be misplaced. But, when we check on him, he is, without a shadow of a doubt, asleep. We shake him and call out his name, but he doesn't budge."

"Have you called a doctor?"

"Lots of them. My father favors my elder brother, so we've had a bunch of them over at my house. Those guys did the works on him when it came down to tests, but they all concluded that there was nothing wrong – medically speaking – about him. He's just asleep. A psychiatrist also came to see him – we thought that if there's nothing wrong with his body, something in his mind must have triggered this – and he said that he cannot proceed with treatment until my brother wakes up. So … we just wait, until that happens. Eventually."

"Have you thought of bringing him to the hospital?"

"Out of the question for Chichiue. He fears that the repercussions that will happen when my brother's condition goes public with be bad for the business. Aside from that, even the doctors didn't recommend confinement. His vitals are low, yet enough for him to stay alive. He's getting enough nourishment, so there's no need for an IV. And, like what they said – he's just _asleep_."

"Wow." Shuurei shakes his head. "That's really disturbing."

"It is. My father seems to be calm about the whole thing, but out of necessity, he's starting to make me do things that my brother used to do. One of those things is getting a good grasp of what our business is about. I've never done that before, I've never really cared. But now, I'm forced to. I _have_ to. And I'm really not liking the pressure he's putting on me now."

"So … is that the reason why you're here?"

"Well, yeah. Part of it." Ryuuki admits. "I didn't run away. I go home very late at night every so often, when everyone's asleep, just to replenish my supplies." He makes a soft kick on his backpack. "Got everything I need in here. I've been spending my nights in convenience stores, coffee shops, libraries, school – until it closes, of course."

"Do you bathe?" Shuurei makes a disgusted face.

"Of course I do!" Ryuuki answers adamantly. "_Toudai_ has a gym. Lots of showers. Got soap and shampoo and deodorant and a shaver and all of those other things in my bag."

She sighs with relief. "I'm so glad you do."

Ryuuki nods. "I also go out because I couldn't stand to be at home anymore. Especially when I started losing sleep."

"Your drinking coffee compounds to that problem, you know."

"No, it's not that. I'm losing sleep, and I also _don't_ want to sleep. When I was at home, and I go to bed, all I can think about is my brother who's in the same roof as I am, sleeping like that. It drives me nuts. So, I left."

"Three months in bed sleeping. That's a long time."

Ryuuki nods in agreement. "Chichiue actually changed my brother's mattress into the kind that hospitals use. He didn't want my brother to get bedsores. They're really bad when they start to appear on your back. I guess, he's also thinking that my brother may be into this sleeping bit for the long haul." He heaves a loud, deep sigh.

"But, it must be really hard for you to go through all that." She chimes in.

"To be completely honest though, I kind of had an idea that this was going to happen. He told me he was going to be sleeping for a while. I just didn't think it would mean this."

"He _told_ you?"

"Uh huh. That was three months ago. He suddenly wanted to see me – we haven't really seen each other much prior to that. We have a really good relationship, but I thought he was busy with his stuff so he probably didn't have time to spend with me."

"Can you tell me more about him?"

Ryuuki nods. "He's a businessman. He's managing a lot of our family's companies on his own, and he's been doing that for a number of years now. He's very focused and doesn't really say much. Unlike me, he's been homeschooled. He's very smart. He is who he is because that's what expected of him. But even with that knowledge, he assumed the role anyway." He pauses. "He's not married, but my father's been arranging marriages with him for some time. My brother's rejected all of them thus far. He's got very high standards, I guess, or maybe he doesn't have the time to settle down."

"High standards? Is your brother handsome?"

"This may sound really strange, but he isn't handsome. He's beautiful." Ryuuki answers sheepishly. "Like, there was a time that I tried spending a day in his room when he was already sleeping, and I just stared at him. He looked ridiculously serene, but the aura that his face exuded was beautiful. It's weird, I know … but, I can almost imagine him playing the role of Sleeping Beauty …"

"And a handsome _prince_ will come to wake him up?" Shuurei laughs.

Ryuuki smiles broadly. "He'd be very mad if that happened. Sleeping Beauty wakes up with a kiss. It's _got_ to be a princess. But either way, it's going to be very awkward."

"Based from the way you talk about him, you must get along with him well."

"Yeah. My brother comes across to others as very cold, but he's the opposite when it comes to me. I really enjoyed the time we spend together. He simmers down when I'm with him, as if he's an entirely different person. Believe me, I know how he is with others. He can be quite unforgiving to everyone else, except me." He pauses for a while.

"He told me he was going to be sleeping, but I didn't pay attention." His voice becomes lower, much softer. "I was thinking about other things that time. I just … took that moment for granted. It was very important for him – the fact that he asked to meet me proves it. And … I think he never told anyone about it, just to me. But even that, I took for granted."

Shuurei's face softens. She tries to find the words to say. "No one, not even you, could have known what he had meant that time."

"Yeah, but still, that's not an excuse." Ryuuki says forcefully. "I think he gave me a hint that night. He kind of asked, a bit jokingly, if I will watch over him while he sleeps, and I remember telling him no, because I wouldn't want to disturb him." He shakes his head with the memory. "He laughed a bit when I told him that, but … _still_."

Both of them are silent for a while. Shuurei straightens out her skirt again. Ryuuki stares straight ahead, his face expressionless.

"Hearing your story … makes me want to rethink the things that I'm doing now." He says, after a while. "Your situation's not the same with mine, but you made it work out. I have to make mine work out, somehow. I just don't know how I can do it."

"It will, I know it." She says firmly. "I have a feeling."

"Why?" Ryuuki turns to her. "How can you be sure?"

"Well," she tilts her head slightly. "The fact that your brother told you that he was going to sleep meant that you were the only one who needed to know what he was about to do. You're the only one who mattered." She answers. "So, maybe, the way to get him out of sleeping lies with you, or what you do from here on in. I really don't know … but this is your situation. You're more capable of knowing how to deal with it."

Ryuuki nods.

"It's tough, but life is a rock."

"Huh?"

"It's hard."

Ryuuki smiles again. "That's pretty witty of you."

Shuurei smiles back. "You learn a lot of things in this part of town."

Time passes again between the both of them. Shuurei swings her legs on the high chair, while Ryuuki adjusts his cap.

"Thank you. For hearing me out."

"It's no problem at all. You need to let these things out eventually."

"Yeah." He looks around and sees the chairs in front of the front desk. They look really comfortable. "Hey, is it all right if I can sit by there? I know I'm no longer paying, but …"

"Oh, it's all good." She replies quickly. "We owe you, after the ruckus that happened earlier. Are you planning to …"

"Sleep? I don't know." Ryuuki answers. "But, they strike me as interesting, suddenly."

Shuurei smiles and nods. "Suit yourself."

"Can you watch over my backpack for me?"

"No problem."

Ryuuki gets off the chair and starts toward the chairs. As he sits on him, a chill erupts from his spine to his head, one that calms him completely. He lowers his baseball cap again, and closes his eyes.

Probably, a few minutes of shut-eye isn't so bad.


	14. 5:45 AM

**5:45 AM.**

Shi Ryuuki wakes up.

He wakes up with a start, completely surprised. The feeling of sleep has become alien to him, that he doesn't even realize he is already in that state until he opened his eyes. He scratches his eyes vigorously.

The lobby is now empty. Not even housekeeping is roaming about. He looks back and sees Kou Shuurei, writing something in a logbook. He stands up, and walks toward her.

"Good morning!" She says jovially, when she notices him. "You were sleeping." She smiles.

"Yeah, I didn't even realize it." Ryuuki says, his voice hoarse. "I just sat and then, boom. Totally unexpected."

"How was it?" She asks. "Sleeping again, after a while?"

"Can't really say much about it. It's kind of like … an out-of-body experience."

"Oh."

"Out-of-body in the sense that I woke up with a jolt, like my soul came crashing down to my body."

They hear the elevator bell ring. By their right, Ran Shuuei and Li Kouyuu walk towards the front desk. Shuuei raises his eyebrows upon seeing the both of them, while Kouyuu just yawns, his eyes still half-closed.

"Good morning." Shuurei greets them.

"'Morning." Shuuei replies, then gives her a piece of plastic. "Charge it, Shuurei."

"Sure." She takes the credit card and presses a number of buttons in the POS. A transaction slip prints, which he signs. Then, she tears it off and gives a copy to him, with the credit card along with it.

"Thank you for your patronage."

"Always a pleasure for me and Kouyuu." He turns to Ryuuki. "How about you?"

"Got mine for free." He answers.

Shuuei frowns. "Free?" He then turns to Shuurei.

"I assigned the wrong room for him." She says, with embarrassment. "It's kind of related to the incident awhile ago."

"If he gets his room for free, how about me? I also got dragged into that mess."

"Kochou-neesan said she'll repay you for that in another way."

A brief pause comes, then Shuuei laughs out loud. "Oh, if she says so, then it's all good!"

Ryuuki glares at him, and we see Kouyuu, who is still in half-asleep daze frown visibly with what he hears.

"Canwenotgoalready?" He groans in between his teeth. "Ihavetogetcoffeeandgettowork."

"Yes, yes, we're leaving." Shuuei tells him. He looks at Ryuuki. "You coming?"

He nods. "Yeah. I have to go home. Need to resupply."

"Oh, okay." He looks at Shuurei. "Thanks a lot, Shuurei-chan. We'll surely be back."

"You're welcome, and thank you too." Shuurei bows to the three of them.

Shuuei and Kouyuu start on ahead, but Ryuuki starts to go around the front desk when Shuurei lifts something out from her side of the table.

"Your backpack." She says simply.

"Oh, thank you." He walks toward her again and takes it. "I really enjoyed my stay here. Not much of a stay though, given what this place really is, but yeah."

Shuurei laughs. "Yeah, you're really different from the others, but I enjoyed it too."

Ryuuki smiles. "Thank you."

"You have to go."

"Yeah." He looks away slowly, then looks at her again. "Um, if it's not too much of a bother …" He starts, then hesitates. "Are you free … anytime soon? You know, for coffee or something."

"I prefer tea."

Ryuuki's eyes widen. "Oh. Okay. Actually, I do too." He grins.

"No way! I have yet to see you drink tea."

"I do, at home."

"Whatever. But either which way, I'd love to go out." She says. "Just not at night. I have work."

Ryuuki nods. "How about after school?"

"Mine ends at about past 4."

"My Tuesday and Thursday classes ends at 3:30. We can meet on either of those days."

"Tuesday next will be perfect. Can we go to Akihabara?"

"What? Why there?"

"Oh, nothing really. Just want to check out the scene there. Get fashion tips. Immerse myself with the weirdness. That is … if it's all right with you."

"It's fine. Just, not the place that's top of mind to take someone out for … a date."

"Oh." She falls silent, as if to absorb what Ryuuki just said.

"Anyway, Akihabara is fine. Cosplayers abound."

Shuurei nods vigorously. "Do you have a _ketai_? I can give you my number."

Ryuuki takes out his phone, and she dictates her number.

"Great. I'll just give you a call."

"No problem. I'll wait for that."

"I'll see you then."

"Wait!" She exclaims suddenly. "I … I'm so sorry … I didn't get your name."

"Oh, right." He turns back. "It's Ryuuki. Shi Ryuuki."

Shuurei's expression turns into sheer shock. "_Shi_? Oh my gosh, what are you---"

"What am I doing here, I know, I know." Ryuuki says. "But, can't the same be said of you too?"

Her mouth opens, as if to contest, then her face slowly subsides to normal. "Yeah, right." Shuurei smiles softly. "I'll see you next Tuesday then, Ryuuki-sama."

"Ryuuki is just fine."


	15. 6:35 AM

**6:35 AM.  
**  
Shi Seien's room.

By now, sunlight has broken in completely in here, the blinds casting shadows inside. Though the room has changed, Seien has not. He remains asleep. He has not moved a muscle or a finger since we last saw him.

Ryuuki enters the room. He closes the door gently behind him, making sure that it closes as softly as possible. He knows that even a loud sound will not cause his brother to awaken, but he does so out of respect.

He looks at the state of his brother's body. It is unchanged since he last came in here. A bitter look comes on his face. He then removes his baseball cap, and puts it on the chair nearest him. He ruffles his blond hair, which had been stuck inside the cap for hours now. He drops his backpack to the carpeted floor.

"I'm home, Aniue." He says softly. Seien does not respond, but Ryuuki didn't expect him to. He just wants to break the deafening, otherworldly silence in the room. He looks around, looking for a change, something that is displaced, but everything is exactly as where he had left it. Just like his brother, everything in his room is devoid of movement. Or of life.

He walks towards him, the sound of his feet is muffled by the carpet. He lifts his hand slowly, placing his fingers on his brother's forehead. He feels a slight warmth, but his brother's face remains still. He removes his hand, sits on his bed, and stares.

He stares for a long time. His eyes go from Seien's face, down to his eased shoulders, his folded hands on his sides, his chest, his straight legs. Even the thought of Sleeping Beauty doesn't bring any amusement now. It's like he's staring at an embalmed body, the only thing missing is its coffin.

Ryuuki removes his watch, his ring and jacket, and places them on the bedside counter. Then, he snuggles in the small space and lies down beside Seien. He rests on his side, inching towards him as closely as possible. He allows himself to be comfortable enough. After a while, he rises, and presses his ear on his brother's chest. He feels him breathing, ever so slightly. His heart is beating. A pretty big difference from an embalmed body.

He lifts his head, and sets his eyes directly above Seien. Tears start to fall on his brother's face. Ryuuki wipes his eyes furiously in shame, but does this gently on his brother. _I'm sorry_, he says, but no voice comes out of his mouth. His tears feel warm on his fingertips, as he wipes them from Seien's cheek. _I'm so sorry._ He feels horrified. Responsible. Helpless.

Ryuuki looks around the room again, making sure, imperatively sure, that nothing in this room has changed. But everything in here is in its proper order. His eyes catch the untouched meal that was served the previous day. His eyes return to Seien. He found nothing, no sense of hope that things will change for the better anytime soon. He presses his chest against his brother's, resting his cheek softly on his. In Seien's deep slumber, this is the only way that Ryuuki knew how to let him know that he was here. He is here, just as his brother wanted him to be.

"Come back, Aniue," he whispers softly in Seien's ear. "Please come back. It's all right if it's not now. Just … _come back_." He tears up again as he says this. He grits his teeth and buries his head on the sheets. His sobs start to build up in his throat, but he swallows them hard. He closes his eyes, and allows all strength to leave his body. In bittersweet surrender, he falls asleep.

Outside, the scene has changed drastically. Everything is basking underneath the light of day. Children are on their bikes, riding off to school. Mothers wave to their husbands and kids who are just setting off. Trains are overflowing. Traffic is building.

But in this room, where Seien and Ryuuki lay, everything is at a standstill. And, with whatever consciousness Seien had left in his slumber, his mouth begins to move slightly. He surely isn't capable of realizing that his younger brother is sleeping with him, but he must have felt something that would have caused this. Is it Ryuuki's warmth upon him? A sure sign of life exchanging with that of his own? His mouth opens, trembles, and then closes again. We know that this may be a sign of more significant things to come. Only time will tell.

We, the observer, zoom out of this scene, outside the room, and into the skies. We see the whole metropolis from above, bustling with activity, overflowing with life. It is another manic morning. But it is only a matter of time till it transforms into a manic night.

Everything happens in just a matter of time.


	16. Omake, 3 months prior

**7:53 PM. Three months prior.  
**  
Shi Ryuuki walks along the hallway, towards the large sitting room of their house. He received a mail earlier that morning, one that he didn't expect. It was from his elder brother.

At first, the mere reality of receiving mail from him struck him as amusing, but Ryuuki knew that his brother didn't have much of a choice. He was always glued to his work, that e-mail was probably the best way he knew how to reach him. He barely sends SMS. He doesn't have time to text. He just thought of these things and eliminated the factor that he and his brother still lived under the same roof. Just under the roof of a ridiculously large mansion.

He flips his mobile open and flips it close again. He's waiting for a call. Or text. Or a combination of both. Tonight is important for reasons other than his brother calling for him.

He opens the enormous door, which reveals the sitting room. He looks around. The fireplace is lit, and there are a number of chairs that are arranged in a circle, but nobody is around. He comes in, and shuts the door. The large Arcadia door is slid open. He walks briskly towards it, and finds himself outside the room. He is now fronting a garden, but he is separated from it by white balustrades surrounding him. At the very center stands a tall figure.

"Seien-aniue!"

The figure from the other side turns. Shi Seien's face lifts slowly as he sees his younger brother arriving. "Ryuuki."

Ryuuki comes to him fast, until they are beside each other. He smiles at his elder brother widely.

"I'm home."

"Welcome back." Seien says, in a voice that is hushed yet loud enough for the both of them to hear. He lifts his hand and ruffles Ryuuki's hair gently. "How have you been? How's school?"

"Fine. School's great." Ryuuki shuts an eye, in half-resistance to his brother's gesture. "Got an A in Political Science preliminaries. I studied hard like heck for that."

Seien nods. "That's good." He smiles faintly, and removes his hand from Ryuuki's head.

"How about you, Aniue?"

"I'm tired." He answers. "So tired. Maybe, too tired."

"You should rest, then." Ryuuki tells him. "Are those old geezers giving you a hard time?"

"Not just them. Pretty much everybody and everything." Seien replies exhaustedly. "Except you, of course."

Ryuuki chuckles. "I'm sorry I don't get to see you often."

"It's all right. You must be busy."

"Um … not really. I thought you were too busy."

"Oh. Well. I am. But, it's not like you're not welcome."

"I don't want to bother you."

"That's silly, Ryuuki. Since when did you do that?"

Ryuuki laughs a bit, and Seien smiles at him in return.

"If that's the case, I'll come by whenever I'm free." Ryuuki says. He flips his mobile open, and closes it again. "That is, if it's okay with you."

"That's no problem at all." His brother answers.

"Great!"

"Listen, Ryuuki …" Seien slowly turns his head away from him. The look on his face is of sheer exhaustion. His eyes are devoid of light.

"I … may be sleeping for a while."

Ryuuki raises his eyebrows. "Oh. All right." He shrugs. "That's understandable, with you being tired and all."

Seien nods slightly. "Yes, but … I think it may be for a while."

"Don't worry about it, Aniue. You deserve a break. You've been working nonstop. I can't even remember the last time you took a vacation."

"We did, about a year and a half ago, I think." Seien turns to him. "The both of us. We went to Okinawa."

"That was a business trip." Ryuuki corrects him. "And I wanted to tag along. I'm talking about a real vacation, one where you didn't have to bring your _persocom_ and mobile along. We never had one of those. Not in a long time."

Seien ponders on this for a while. "You're right." He says finally. "I guess, I haven't had one in a while."

"You deserve some rest." Ryuuki encourages him. "Sleep for the whole day. If they come looking for you, I'll just tell them to get lost."

"Even Chichiue?"

"Why not?"

"I have yet to see you stand up to him."

"Well, this may be that golden opportunity." Ryuuki smiles mischievously.

Seien laughs softly, then he falters into silence. "You … will watch over me, won't you? While I sleep?"

Ryuuki blinks, trying to find an answer to the question. "Hmm … probably not. I don't want to wake you up."

"I don't think you'll be able to."

"Yeah, you may be right. You're too dead tired."

Seien smiles faintly. He then turns to Ryuuki and puts a hand on his face, resting his fingers softly.

"I know … you'll understand. You're the only one who will understand."

Ryuuki nods, but the weight of Seien's words do not come upon him until much later.

"I haven't hugged you in a while."

Ryuuki frowns visibly. "I'm too old for that." He protests. "We're too old for that."

"Let me have one, for old times' sake."

He scowls for a while, then sighs. "All right then." He slowly brings his arms around his brother's waist and rests his head on his shoulder. The thought of doing this strikes him as awkward as first, but it becomes the most natural thing when he does it. Seien places his hand on Ryuuki's head, stroking him gently.

"I really missed you." Ryuuki says, snuggling his head in his brother's shoulder, making himself comfortable. "Isn't that weird? We live in the same house, after all."

"I did too." His brother's breath fans on his head. "And you're right, it is weird." Seien presses his cheek on Ryuuki's head. "I told you in my mail we should move to a smaller house. Maybe, just the both of us."

"Will Chichiue allow us?"

"Probably." Seien answers softly. "Maybe, it won't really matter."

Ryuuki closes his eyes, as if, in a effort to let everything around him fade away to center on this moment. The security of being in Seien's arms seems to be something he constantly longs for. The fundamental feeling of being protected and loved can never be shaken, even in adulthood.

He wants to remain here. He doesn't want to let go.

Until his mobile suddenly rings.

He raises his head, looks at Seien, then reaches for his phone in his jeans. He flips it open. "Hello, oh yeah, hi … it's out? For real? Oh, that's great! Can I go there? … Yeah … yeah … that's amazing! I'll be on my way now. Yeah. You'd better get there fast! I'm sure there will be a long line waiting by the time we get there. Okay. I'll see you." He ends the call, then turns to Seien.

"That was my contact from the Heki _zaibatsu_. They just released a new game and they're releasing it in an Internet café downtown. They're allowing me first dibs!" He exclaims.

"Oh, I see." Seien nods. "That's the game you were---"

"It's the one that I've been waiting for nearly a year now, and it's finally out!" Ryuuki gushes with delight. "I really have to go. There's definitely a long line there by now.I have to get going." He places his phone back into his pocket, then looks at his brother.

"I'll see you, Aniue."

Seien closes his eyes, then reaches his hand towards Ryuuki's head. He scoops him gently, bringing him near, and kisses his forehead.

"Goodbye, Ryuuki."

A small frown appears on Ryuuki's face, one that isn't seen by his elder brother. He doesn't understand why Seien uses that word when they will surely see each other next day, or the day after that. The situation doesn't warrant a goodbye.

"I'll be _seeing_ you." He says emphatically, as he draws away. It is meant to assure himself and his brother, but we know from foresight that this is in vain. He looks at his brother from top to bottom. He is dressed very much in the usual corporate fashion – the purple tie that he still wore in perfect condition is the only color that stands out in his dreary black and white fashion. There seems to be nothing wrong. He is perfectly fine.

Ryuuki smiles at him for the last time and walks away, then starts into a run as he makes his exit.

After he sees the doors to the sitting room close, Seien rubs his face with his palm. He feels the exhaustion coming, seeping into every fiber of his being. The migraine is throbbing in his head. He knows he has to lie down.

He is simply tired of everything.


End file.
